| Abstrakt: |
Abstract: Vital statistics had been gathered systematically and continuously in the Austrian monarchy since 1784, the year of the civil registration reform which brought the unification of records necessary for collecting data based on concrete classsifying features. By analyzing available historic sources, this article studies the process of gathering data on natural population change in the Austrian part of Silesia, taking into consideration the general changes in the process especially in years 1828 and 1850, and the administrative reforms in years 1848-1850 and 1854-1855. The sources were analyzed on all levels of their creation, from parishes to regions and lands, hence taking into account not only the final published documents which contained data classified just based on basic criteria, but even primary versions where the classification was significantly richer. The study has a wider impact given that in other Austrian lands vital statistics underwent the same reforms, therefore Austrian Silesia serves as an ewample. Despite the obvious deficiencies in gathering data, vital statistics belong among important historical-demographic research sources, principally due to their big territorial extent and rather detailed data classification. |
