Peculiarities of Age Records of the Ukrainian Population Based on the Materials from Church and Financial Accounts of the Second Half of the 18th Century

Abstract

The aim. The article examines the peculiarities of the rural population age records of The Cossack Hetmanate in the second half of the 18th century. The work is based on the materials of the Rumyantsevsky inventory of Left-Bank Ukraine in 1765-1769 and confessional signatures of individual settlements of the Poltava Regiment in 1775. Research methods. The methodological features of the paper vary in the fields of social history and historical demography, using a comparative approach, as well as mainly methods of quantitative and critical analysis of sources. Conclusions. The reasons for conducting a financial census were driven by the need to make effective resource distributions and tax collections that would have stimulated economic development. The proposes of the creation of the confessional records were Christian ethical education and discipline of Orthodox believers. The article calculated the indicators of age accumulation of the Ukrainian rural population according to the D. Whipple methodology. According to the United Nations scale of standards, were determined the average indicator of the Whipple index and the level of documentation confidence: the materials of the confessional signatures in 1775 had good data quality; otherwise, the Rumyantsevsky inventory had poor data quality. Both sources show deviations from the norm. Among the factors that contributed to the inaccuracies in the digital data of the sources are the following: oral transmission of age data to the compilers of the registers; the presence of a significant proportion of ‘jubilees’, individuals whose years of life ended with '0' and '5'; the presentation of deliberately false age indicators, considering the purpose of compiling the two registers; poor readability of personalised records; violations of performance discipline by registrars, etc. Despite the inaccuracies and disadvantages of church and financial sources, such documentation remains informative, important, and unique materials for studying the historical, demographic, and other features of the life of the Ukrainian population of any historical period.