ABSTRACT
The family was the smallest of the social units which gave people a sense of identity and purpose. In recognition of the undoubted importance of this grouping, a small band of historians have set themselves the laborious task of unravelling the secrets of the various family types found in early modern western Europe. Monogamy meant one wife for each husband during the wife's lifetime with the option of remarriage after her death. The simplest form of family which could engage in the process of human reproduction was the nuclear family. Stem family consisted of two co-residential married couples. The third basic family type found in early modern Europe was the joint family. Married people who were not of a mind to make the co-resident family their sole emotive centre or were not content to seek emotional fulfilment with unrelated neighbours in their village, might find satisfaction for this need among members of their extended family.
