Paper short abstract:

Through the present proposal we would like to test if the tradition regarding the existence of a large household, with numerous members, can be proved in the case of Budești village, located in the central part of Transylvania.

Paper long abstract:

A concrete form of studying the lives of the people from the past, their behavior and the social realities can be obtained through a closer analysis of the family and household. This project proposal represents our intention of conducting a demographic research, which will picture aspects related to the structure of the Romanian household from Transylvania's past (early 20th century).

Many works created until now supported the idea of the predominance of large households with numerous members in Transylvania, during the 18th-19th centuries, even affirming that there was a tradition of such kind. Some foreign researchers have long associated the Romanian family with the Balcanic zadruga, another traditional type of family.

Through this project proposal we aim to test if the large household tradition with numerous members is indeed a valid detail in the case of Budești village, located in the central part of Transylvania. We would like to investigate if such a tradition really existed, especially considering that, during this period, Transylvania made significant steps towards modernization from an economic and social point of view.

We intend to verify these aspects starting from the data collected from the printed household records, belonging to the Budești community of 1901. Also known as "nominal conscription of the souls", these registers were made of several "family sheets".

Because these sources offer information about the household, we consider that using them will help us to find precise answers concerning the preservation or not of some traditions regarding the family and household in Transylvania.