Author Date

2022-04-01

Degree Name

Department

History

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Defense Date

2022-02-23

Publication Date

2022-4

First Faculty Advisor

Jeffrey M. Shumway

First Faculty Reader

Amy Harris

Honors Coordinator

Daren Ray

Keywords

microhistory, Spain, Argentina, migration, infant death, burial customs

Abstract

This thesis is a microhistory focused on infant death and burial practices in Spain and Argentina at the turn of the twentieth century. The study uses primary sources from biographical journal pages, vital records, and notarial documents. The biographical journal pages are eleven loose pages written by Pablo Montaña that provide information about his family's births, marriages, and deaths, for four generations. Vital records for birth, marriage, and death events were found in the local parish and municipal archives in Cañizo, Spain, and the Catholic Diocese Archive in Zamora, Spain, Archivo Histórico Diocesano de Zamora. Notarial records like wills and land sales were found in the provincial archive in Zamora, Spain, Archivo Histórico Provincial de Zamora. This microhistory follows Pablo Montaña and Exuperancia Fernández San Juan from their hometown of Cañizo, Zamora, Spain to Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina. Within a migration framework, the story develops around the themes of Catholic death rituals and doctrine, cemeteries and burial, and disease and healthcare. Even though this microhistory follows a particular family, place, and time, it also connects to a broader theme of how people, societies, and cultures remember, grieve, and deal with loss.