ABSTRACT
One obvious means of avoiding the pitfalls inherent in the pursuit of the family through literary sources, is to attempt to press into service the mass of information generated by the early modern English state. This material naturally lends itself to statistical analysis and this inevitably gives such investigations an air of reliability that is lacking in enquiries into the history of the family as a web of intangible emotions. The rise of this form of history owes much to the development of new methods of analysis, originally pioneered in France and highly influential in North America, but which were adapted, refined and pushed forward from the 1950s in Britain. This branch of the history of the family can legitimately claim to be the most successful of all the methodologies employed for the early modern period. Firstly, it placed the study of the family on a scientific basis; secondly, it carried out the most radical transformation of our understanding of family life in the past; and finally, it has remained essential to any investigation of the texture of society in any period. However, as will become clear, these findings have had their critics.
