Louis Henry
Encyclopedia
Louis Henry was a French historian. Founder of the historical demography
and one-place study
fields. His 1956 book co-written with Michel Fleury, Des registres paroissiaux à l'histoire de la population. Manuel de dépouillement et d'exploitation de l'état civil ancien lied foundation for studies in those areas.
Henry was proposing that it was possible to reconstruct the population
of France from 1670 to 1829. He devised more advanced methods then extraction of data from records, together with rules to correct bias and indicate which family histories could be used for different kinds of statistical analysis.
Henry is also responsible for the concept of natural fertility
, which became important for how demographers came to understand the idea of fertility control.
Historical demography
Historical demography is the quantitative study of human population in the past. It is concerned both with the three basic components of population change--fertility, mortality, and migration--and with population characteristics related to those components, such as marriage, socioeconomic status,...
and one-place study
One-place study
One-place studies are a branch of family history with a focus on the entire population of a single village or community, not just a single, geographically dispersed family line.-Introduction:...
fields. His 1956 book co-written with Michel Fleury, Des registres paroissiaux à l'histoire de la population. Manuel de dépouillement et d'exploitation de l'état civil ancien lied foundation for studies in those areas.
Henry was proposing that it was possible to reconstruct the population
Population reconstruction
Population reconstitution is a method used by historical demographers. Using records such as church registries the size and composition of families living in a given region in a given past time is determined...
of France from 1670 to 1829. He devised more advanced methods then extraction of data from records, together with rules to correct bias and indicate which family histories could be used for different kinds of statistical analysis.
Henry is also responsible for the concept of natural fertility
Natural fertility
Natural fertility method of birth control is a concept developed by French historical demographer Louis Henry to refer to the level of fertility that would prevail in a population that makes no conscious effort to limit, regulate, or control fertility, so that fertility depends only on...
, which became important for how demographers came to understand the idea of fertility control.
Further reading
- J. Dupâquier, Obituary: Louis Henry (1911-1991), Population Studies, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Nov., 1992), pp. 539-540.
- Gerard Calot, Louis Henry (1911-1991), Population (French Edition), 47e Année, No. 1 (Jan. - Feb., 1992), pp. i-ii.
- Henry, Louis (1961). “Some data on natural fertility,” Eugenics Quarterly 8: 81–91.