ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with four aspects of the methods and materials utilized in this study of population persistence and migration in rural New York. First, selection of the sample population is discussed. Second, the procedures for decomposition of this sample are detailed. Third, the biases in recovery of this sample are presented. Fourth, decomposition of male heads of families, the principle migration decision makers in the sample population, is addressed. Population sampling is a technique commonly used by social scientists and adopted by some historians during the past decade. In practice this has meant that individuals or households have been selected at random or in a systematic stratified manner from a nominal data source. Decomposition of the sample population using the methodology, although reasonably complete, was also biased. The persisting population is undoubtedly represented correctly but recovery of known emigrants was affected by nativity, gender, and age.
