Lasts Generations of Stem Family: Evolution of Household Structure in Baix Llobregat from Mid 19th to Mid 20th Century.

Inés Gil Torras , University of Bologna
Joana-María Pujadas Mora, CED

This paper examines the persistence, adaptation, and transformation of household composition practices in five municipalities of the Baix Llobregat region (Catalonia) between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries. It represents the first longitudinal, individual-level study of the decline of the stem family system in northern Spain. The stem family system, characterized by impartible inheritance (typically under primogeniture) and multigenerational co-residence of the heir with parents, was a dominant pre-industrial family model across northern and central Europe. In Catalonia, it consolidated from the 10th century and began to decline only after the mid-19th century (Casa de Velázquez, 1986; Ferrer Alòs, 2003, 2005; González, 1991; Maluquer de Motes, 1998; To Figueras, 1993). This arrangement aimed to preserve family lineage and property by appointing one son as heir to succeed the father as household head, while the remaining siblings typically left the parental home upon marriage. Consequently, censuses from stem-family regions show a high prevalence of multigenerational households, comprising married heirs, their parents, and unmarried siblings, while new nuclear families were usually formed by non-heir sons. Using longitudinally linked census data from the BALL demographic database (Pujadas-Mora et al., 2022, 2019), this study traces how stem-family practices endured well into the 20th century. Through Sequence Analysis and Event History Analysis, it reconstructs individual life-course trajectories and household transitions, revealing that the decline of the stem family system occurred later than previously suggested. Rather than an abrupt rupture, the transition was a gradual and adaptive process reflecting the coexistence of traditional and modern family forms.

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 Presented in Session 70. Flash Session New Data, Methods and Comparative Perspectives in Historical Demography