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Collective histories and broad social change are informed by the ways in which personal lives unfold. This book examines individual experiences within such collective histories during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Collective histories and broad social change are informed by the ways in which personal lives unfold. Lives in Transition examines individual experiences within such collective histories during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This collection brings together sources from Europe, North America, and Australia in order to advance the field of quantitative longitudinal historical research. The essays examine the lives and movements of various populations over time that were important for Europe and its overseas settlements - including the experience of convicts transported to Australia and Scots who moved freely to New Zealand. The micro-level roots of economic change and social mobility of settler society are analyzed through populations studies of Chicago, Montreal, as well as rural communities in Canada and the United States. Several studies also explore ethnic inequality as experienced by Polish immigrants, French-Canadians, and Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Lives in Transition demonstrates how the analysis of collective experience through both individual-level and large-scale data at different moments in history opens up important avenues for social science and historical research. Contributors include Luiza Antonie (Guelph), Peter Baskerville (Alberta), Kandace Bogaert (McMaster), John Cranfield (Guelph), Gordon Darroch (York), Allegra Fryxell (Cambridge), Ann Herring (McMaster), Kris Inwood (Guelph), Rebecca Kippen (Melbourne), Rebecca Lenihan (Guelph), Susan Hautaniemi Leonard (Michigan), Hamish Maxwell-Stewart (Tasmania), Janet McCalman (Melbourne), Evan Roberts (Minnesota), J. Andrew Ross (Guelph), Sherry Olson (McGill), Ken Sylvester (Michigan), Jane van Koeverden (Waterloo), Aaron Van Tassel (Western)

IntroductionThe Canadian settlement of the west, via granting free homesteads, is perhaps one of the largest public policy undertakings in the nation's history. However, little is known about the homesteaders themselves, where they came from, how long they stayed and the settlement environment that was created at the time.
Objectives and ApproachThis research adopts a detailed population analysis of the settlement movement in Western Canada. In addition to outlining the social and economic characteristics of the homesteaders, the project answers the following central question: Did it create a stable society of settlers or did it create a field for speculative investment?
The data consist of machine readable individual level databases containing detailed information on and stories from circa 170,000 Alberta homesteaders. These homesteaders will be individually linked to three twentieth century Canadian censuses and the Canadian Pacific Railway's land records to provide an unprecedented holistic analysis of Alberta's early European population.
ResultsWe report on the linkage methodology used to integrate all these data sources. In addition, we discuss any particular issues we encountered given the nature of the historical data. We describe the data cleaning and standardization that was undertaken to facilitate the linkage process. We present and discuss the linkage results obtained, how much of the population was linked and what are the characteristics of those we couldn't link.
We expect that this research will shed new light on persistence rates, trajectories of family composition, nature of labour market adjustment, degrees of social/gender inequality and impacts on regional development. The results will challenge many myths concerning homesteaders and their impact on western Canada and in the process provoke renewed discussion of western Canadian history.
Conclusion/ImplicationsThe research will inform and be informed by work currently being undertaken on migration patterns at the international level. Finally the research has implications for understanding the legacies of rapid population movements, state formation, public policy and national identities in the present.