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Gill Newton MA MSc

Research Associate

Historical demography, historical computing

Biography

Career

  • October 2003-present: Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure

Qualifications

  • 2005 MSc Computer science, Anglia Ruskin University
    Dissertation: Creating a customisable name matching algorithm for historical computing by refactoring (abstract)
  • 2003 MA English, Cambridge University
  • 1999 BA English, Cambridge University

Research

I am interested in the application of large-scale datasets to reveal the changing demographic behaviour of past generations, both at a local, micro-geographical level and nationally. I have a particular interest in mortality and disease transmission in developing urban centres, especially among the young. I have worked on sixteenth to eighteenth century London (see also http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh/pip/) and the occupational structure of Britain during and after the Industrial Revolution. Much of my research is underpinned by linking individuals in historical records to create family reconstitutions, which relies upon name standardisation and automated decision-making.

Currently I am involved in a pilot study aiming to scrutinise the timing and spatial connectivity of the early phase of the epidemiological transition across England by looking at short-term variations in burials totals. I am also acting as a consultant on record linkage for research on the eighteenth century London suburb of St Martin-in-the-Fields, in connection with the Pauper Lives Project.

Publications

Papers

  • 2011: 'Recent developments in making family reconstitutions', Local Population Studies, 87, 84-89
  • 2011: 'Infant mortality variations, feeding practices and social status in London between 1550 and 1750', Social History of Medicine, 24:2, 244-259 (doi:10.1093/shm/hkq042)
  • 2008: People in place: Families, households and housing in Early Modern London, Centre for Metropolitan History, London, 2008 (with Vanessa Harding et al)
  • 'Marriage among Londoners before Hardwicke's Act of 1753: when, where and why?', working paper to be published in a forthcoming Centre for Metropolitan History collection of essays
  • 'Family reconstitution in an urban context: some observations and methods', working paper to be published in a forthcoming Centre for Metropolitan History collection of essays
  • with Leigh Shaw-Taylor, Peter Kitson, E.A. Wrigley, Ros Davies and Max Satchell: 'The creation of a 'census' of adult male employment for England and Wales for 1817', unpublished working paper
  • with Leigh Shaw-Taylor, Peter Kitson, E.A. Wrigley, Ros Davies and Max Satchell: 'The occupational structure of England c.1710-c.1871', unpublished working paper
  • with Leigh Shaw-Taylor, Peter Kitson, E.A. Wrigley, Ros Davies and Max Satchell: 'The occupational structure of England and Wales c.1817-1881', unpublished working paper

Selected conference/seminar papers