Resumen de La mortalité aux âges avancés des immigrants fondateurs de la Nouvelle-France
The University's Research Programme in Demographic History selected, among all the emigrants who crossed the Atlantic to Canada, 3 370 individuals who, having settled with their families in the early days of the coiony, may be considered as the founders of New-France. Although such a procedure is not valid for studying overall adult mortality, it was, in this context, justifiable to study the old-age mortality of these founders by selecting a sub-population of those whose approximate date of birth and date of death were known. The study was based on 1 368 such individuals who died at age 60 or over. These immigrants experienced highly specific living conditions, the consequences of which on their vulnerability in old age are difficult to determine. Findings indicate that their mortality in old age was perceptibly lower than in rural France at the same period, but equivalent to that of the first generations of Canadians. There is no excess male mortality after age 64, and it cannot be asserted that female mortality after age 60 is deeply influenced by maternity history. Finally, immigrants from northern France seem to have resisted better than those from southern France. Seasonal fluctuations in deaths reflect, as would be expected, the influence of the climate on life in Canada.
