Rebecca Lenihan, Historian
Books Reviews and Other
19th and 20th Century Scottish History
Migration History
Quantitative History
Research Keywords
19th Century, 20th Century, demographic, emigration, immigration, internal migration, New Zealand, occupation, return migration, Scotland, settlement, step-migration, databases, Digital Humanities
For my doctoral research I created a profile of New Zealand's Scottish immigrants who arrived between 1840 and 1920 in order to address who they were in terms of origins within Scotland, age, gender, marital status, and occupation. Other aspects of this migrant flow I examined included internal, step, chain and return migration of the migrants, and individual and generational occupational mobility.
In order to perform the statistical analysis necessary to address these questions, during the first year of my doctorate I created a database of New Zealand's Scottish migrants (based on a genealogical society register), and developed a code dictionary for Scotland and New Zealand locations and for occupations. Beyond this statistical work, I integrated qualitative evidence to support my quantitative findings in the final dissertation.
My post-doctoral research took a 5 per cent sample of selected 1871 Scottish counties and traced the individuals in that census sample forward 10 years to the 1880 US census, and the 1881 censuses of Scotland, England and Wales, and Canada in order to create a profile of those who departed Scotland, those who migrated internally, and those who stayed put over that decade.
Aside from analysis and the development of a demographic profile of those traced between censuses my work on this project included the development of a geographic code dictionary for 1871 census coding, data normalisation, manual linking of data between the 1871 census of Scotland and the 1880 census of America, and 1881 censuses of Scotland, England and Wales, and Canada, plus the development of a quality of match code dictionary for linked census data.
My future research agenda includes the creation of a population database of New Zealand for c.1881. The 1880s mark a turning point in New Zealand history in many respects. Among these, it was a decade of bust after a long period of boom, witnessed such significant events in Maori-Pakeha relations as Parehaka, and marks the beginning of a decline in fertility in the colony as well as a sharp decline in immigrant figures. Yet, due principally to the systematic destruction of the New Zealand Census up to the 1960s, historians have yet to fully examine the people who lived through these events and created these trends. While the published census results and other stand-alone sources from the period can give us a glimpse, without large scale record linkage of the extant records this glimpse is limited by what data collectors of the 1880s were interested to learn. The project will address the ethnicity, origins, age, gender, marital status, fertility, occupational, and settlement patterns of the population of New Zealand in 1881. While these are questions the published census of the colony in that year address, the destruction of the original census forms mean these aspects are not able to be studied in any cross-referential way that was not carried out by the head statistician at the time. One goal of the project would be to make the database constructed available to the public and to other researchers of New Zealand history, offering as much of a substitute for the lost data of the original census returns as possible.
Conferences, Seminars, and Presentations
'Database Fundamentals', Wellington 2013 THATCamp (The Humanities And Technology Camp), Victoria University of Wellington, 28 November 2013
'Digital Databases and Migration Studies: Challenges and Opportunities', Digital History Forum Paper, New Zealand Historical Association Biennial Conference, Otago University, 21 November 2013
19th and early 20th century Scottish migration to Canada and New Zealand: demographic comparisons' – Conference Paper, Midwest Conference on British Studies, 13 October 2012
'Scots in 19th century Canada and New Zealand: a comparative overview of demographic characteristics' – Conference Paper, Britain and the World, 22 June 2012
'From 'Ultima Thule' to Aotearoa: New Zealand's Shetland Immigrants' – Conference Paper, Centre and Periphery, NZHA conference, Massey University, Palmerston North, November 2009
'Scottish Immigration to New Zealand: Shetland, a case study' – Conference Paper, Global Nations? Irish and Scottish Expansion since the 16th Century, Aberdeen University, November 2009
'Patterns of Scottish Settlement in New Zealand' – Conference Paper, Scotland's Global Impact, University of the Highlands and Islands, Inverness, October 2009
'New Zealand's Shetland Migrants' – Conference Paper, Nations Diasporas, Identities, VUW, March 2008
Seminar Contributions and Public Presentations
'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Settler: Garrison and Empire in the Nineteenth Century', Seminar paper with Charlotte Macdonald, Victoria University of Wellington History seminar series, 17 July 2015
'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Settler', Presentation to the Alexander Turnbull Library staff with Charlotte Macdonald, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, 5 June 2015
''Jocks' of all trades: an occupational profile of New Zealand's Scots, 1840-1920', Public Lecture, People's History Talks, National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, 12 November 2014
'Who, and how many? Scottish migration to New Zealand by the numbers' – Seminar paper, Victoria University of Wellington History seminar series, 26 September 2014
'Emigrants, stayers, and flitters: demographic and life stage determinants of migration among Scotland's island residents' – Seminar paper, Migrations, mobility and diaspora: new conceptualizations, sources and methods, University of Guelph, 16 August 2013
'People in Motion: Linking the Census', Presentation to the Consul General of France in Toronto, University of Guelph, 26 February 2013
'From the land of heather to the land of the fern: Scottish migration to New Zealand, 1840-1920', Public Lecture, Upper Grand District School Board Continuing Education History Lecture Series, Guelph, 28 January 2013
'Scottish migration to Canada and New Zealand: the basic demographic characteristics' – Seminar paper, University of the Highlands and Islands, Dornoch, 19 June 2012
'Life after a VUW PhD: thoughts on my PhD experience, research and publication, job applications, post-doctoral work, and the Canadian academic system' – Presentation to the Victoria University of Wellington History post-graduate seminar series, 15 March 2012
'From Alba to Aotearoa: A précis of a profile of New Zealand's Scots, 1840-1920' – Seminar paper (Scottish Studies Roundtable series), University of Guelph Scottish Studies Centre, 25 January 2012
'Scottish Settlement Patterns in New Zealand, 1840-1920' – Seminar paper, Sent or Went: Badbea – a case study in clearances, leading to a group migration to NZ, Caithness Archaeological Trust, October 2009
'New Zealand's Scots: an overview of findings', Presentation to the VUW Scottish Interest Group, 28 August 2009
'New Zealand's Scots: an overview of findings to date' – Seminar paper (research round up series), Stout Research Centre, VUW, November 2008
'New Zealand's Scots: an overview of progress and results of analysis to date', Presentation to the Kilbirnie Branch of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists, 1 October 2008
'Profile of New Zealand's Scottish Immigrants: An overview of findings to date', Presentation to the Lower Hutt Branch of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists, 3 July 2008
'Overview of the New Zealand Scots project', Presentation to the Clan Chisholm Society, Wellington, 14 June 2008
'An overview of Scottish immigration to New Zealand – with family history sourced case studies' – Presentation at the Kilbirnie Genealogical Society Expo, 19 April 2008.
'Using Genealogical Material in Migration Research' – Workshop paper, Ulster and New Zealand: Establishing a Future Research Agenda, VUW, September 2007
'Counting New Zealand's Scots Immigrants: Some Problems Encountered' – Seminar/Workshop paper, Ethnic Counting: How do we measure Ethnic and Cultural Transfers in the British World?, VUW, March 2007.