THE COMPONENTS OF BIOLOGICAL KINSHIP IN A REGIME OF NATURAL FERTILITY- THE EXAMPLE OF OLD QUEBEC

This article is intended as a descriptive analysis of biological kinsh ip in a population subjected to a regime of natural fertility. The pop ulation used is that of Canda under French rule, and in particular the second generation of Canadians by birth. The data comes from the Popu lation register of old Quebec (Demographic History Research Programme, University of Montreal). The analysis is at the individual level and is concerned with the size of the close biological kinship, seeking to identify the reasons for its variation and examining whether it can b e predicted from less exhaustive data. The results obtained are primar ily a picture of kinship in conditions of natural fertility, and indic ations which tend to show that biological kinship could indeed be esti mated from fairly limited data in a population subject to some stabili ty.