{"id":2012,"date":"2018-08-31T12:13:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-31T19:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/?p=2012"},"modified":"2018-09-10T20:39:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T03:39:51","slug":"the-average-marriage-before-1800-lasted-only-seven-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/2018\/08\/31\/the-average-marriage-before-1800-lasted-only-seven-years\/","title":{"rendered":"The Average Marriage before 1800 Lasted only Seven Years."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Please consider: <\/strong><\/p>\n

__almost half of all marriages were broken by the death of one or the other partner. Before<\/u> their 15th<\/sup> anniversary; Before<\/u> their oldest child became an adult; A new marriage was contracted and a new family unit begun\u2014the average marriage lasted seven years<\/strong>
\n__partners re-married quickly and could have three to four marriages during a lifespan
\n__most children grew up as orphans and\/or step-children with half-siblings
\n__one-third to one-half\u00a0 of all children born to a family never became adults\u201425% to 30% died within the first one or two years. And some 50% may not survive until age 20!
\n__this high mortality required the family to produce many children to ensure survival of the family
\n__marriages occurred early\u2014at an average of 20 years of age or younger! You can expect to find multiple marriages for one or the other ancestor in the initial marriage.<\/p>\n

A wife was essential \u2013<\/strong>
\n__brought dowry of money or property to the marriage
\n__bore and raised the children\u2014the first workforce for the family unit
\n__could be with child at marriage\u201417th century, under 10%; 18th century, up to 40% were expecting<\/p>\n

A husband was essential \u2013<\/strong>
\n__conducted the legal business of the family\u2014women\u2019s rights were few, wills were written to protect property holdings of widows and children as well as ensure the survivability of the family
\n__protected against enemies on the frontier
\n__supported the family members economically<\/p>\n

The<\/strong> marriage and family unit were dependent upon kinship networks:
\n<\/strong>__for financial advice and aid\u2014mortgages and loans were made by relatives to each other
\n__for political preferment\u2014based on who your ancestors were related to and who they knew\u2014family connections were essential, nepotism
\n__for legal protection\u2014serving as bondsmen, witnesses, and co-signers
\n__for chain migration patterns\u2014family units followed routes already taken by relatives and praised in glowing terms. Did you know that the majority of Italians who came to Cleveland, Ohio, were from same village in Italy?
\n__for settlement patterns\u2014family members usually located their new lands near each other
\n__formed the legal basis for ownership of property–pay attention to the names of the neighbors
\n__legitimate claims to inheritance and preferment
\n__source of money from civil government agencies created to ensure the survival of heirs<\/p>\n

Summary of \u201cBicentennial Perspectives on Birth, Marriage, and Death,\u201d National Genealogical Society<\/em> Quarterly<\/em><\/strong> 65 (March 1977): 16-24. Richard Jensen, the author of this little-known and essential article, was Director of the Family and Community History Center, Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois.<\/p>\n

Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle<\/p>\n

PS If you have considered only one marriage partner for your ancestor–you need to look again! These stats don’t lie…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Please consider: __almost half of all marriages were broken by the death of one or the other partner. Before their 15th anniversary; Before their oldest child became an adult; A new marriage was contracted and a new family unit begun\u2014the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1729,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[255],"class_list":["post-2012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-life-expectancy-before-1800"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1729"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2012"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2029,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012\/revisions\/2029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}