Family Life and Sociability in Upper and Lower Canada, 1780-1870

Download or read book Family Life and Sociability in Upper and Lower Canada, 1780-1870 written by Françoise Noël and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2003 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on diaries and letters exchanged between family members Françoise Noël considers the nature of family, the couple during courtship and after marriage, parents and children in childhood and after the children leave home, and the social life of the family in terms of both leisure time and entertainment and the mutual assistance provided by social networks of kin, neighbours, and friends. She notes that courtship usually took place within the social network of interactions with kin and neighbours and shows that family life was located in a broad social space that included people of various ages. By examining the correspondence and diaries of francophone and anglophone middle-class families of various faiths, Noël presents touching stories of family life in the Canadas in the early nineteenth century.