The debate on old-age pensions in New York during the 1920s raised
questions about traditional poor-law concepts concerning family responsibilityfor the
aged and about the impact of industrialization and immigration on family security. The
article examines these questions by analyzing a sample of families which included
persons 65 years or older, in New York in 1925. The evidence consists of information
on households collected from a state-wide sample of 1815 persons from the New York
manuscript census of 1925. Low income among the employed may have forced the
creation ofcro wded households among the new immigrants living in cities. But cultural
expectations also contributed to different types of household structure. A west-
European marriage pattern meant that American- and west-European-born elderly
had fewer children to rely upon in old age, regardless of economic status. The
immigrants from eastern and southern Europe stressed the value of children as
insurance in old age. Family norms varied between cultural groups before industrial
ization and continued even in post-industrial societies.
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