Hvordan forstå "Relationship to head of household" "female partner" 1900 telling USA

[Steinar Sletten]

 

 

Har det noe med legning å gjøre eller er det en helt annen betydning ? 

[Kurt Østbye]

Ser unektelig litt 'snålt' ut, men disse damene drev altså systue sammen :) Som det framgår av originalskjemaet er den eldste 'seamster' og den yngste 'dressmaker', så alt var nok som det 'sømmer seg' mellom de to ......

 

[Carl-Henry Geschwind]

Please forgive me for answering in English.

 

See #125 in the Instructions for the 1900 census (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/technical-documentation/questionnaires/1900/1900-instructions.html) :"If two or more persons share a common abode as partners, write ’’head‘‘ for one and ‘‘partner’’ for the other or others."

 

In other words, this is where two unrelated people were living together. In most cases, the unrelated person was a "boarder" or "lodger" who paid rent, but in some cases the unrelated person might actually have been a co-owner, in which case he or she was a "partner".

 

The official instructions do not go any further than this. However, historians today do suspect that a number of female couples living in such arrangements at this time might have been lesbian couples.