Wiek opuszczania rodzinnego gospodarstwa domowego w dobie stanisławowskiej w świetle zeznań sądowych

The paper describes patterns of leaving home in late 18th-century Poland. The analysis presented here is based on a new database of life histories from over 800 court depositions from Cracow and Warsaw. Census records from selected villages, towns and cities are used as a secondary source. Statistical analysis indicate 15 years of age as the average age of leaving home. At that age half of young people enumerated in censuses were living outside of their parental households. An examination of the life histories confirms that observation. A more advanced analysis based on the CART algorithm points to important differences between social groups. Members of the lesser nobility and burghers left home usually at 15, while peasants and Jews waited two more years. In more than half of the cases (61%) young people started their occupational activity as domestic servants. Only among the Jews were other jobs, mostly trade and crafts, more popular. The results presented here are similar to the patterns observed in Western societies by R. Wall, M. Dribe and others.