Different Perspectives on an Individual's Life : the Benefits of Comparing Sources

Pooley, Colin (2024) Different Perspectives on an Individual's Life : the Benefits of Comparing Sources. Local Population Studies, 111. pp. 56-61. ISSN 0143-2974

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Abstract

The feelings and emotions associated with events such as migration, marriage, or a birth or death in the family are hard to discern from most demographic sources. It is usually assumed that personal documents such as diaries or letters, where they exist, can shed some light on the ways in which people reacted to the life events that they experienced, and may also reveal more about the personality and character of an individual. In this short research note I demonstrate how two sets of personal documents can provide complementary information about an individual with, in this case, a series of letters providing more information about an individual’s opinions and feelings than does their personal diary which, though detailed, recorded only factual information about their everyday life.