Women & children

[Chasing-fireflies]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the childbearing age of relatives they have researched?

I mean, how old was "too old" and how young was "too young" ?

Quite a few of the people I have researched appeared to be having children for about 20 years which is quite a long time and a lot of children in my opinion 

[karenlee]

Hi

Between 1907 and 1936 my Grandmother gave to birth to 13 children, all of whom survived and there were no multiple births.  This was considered fairly normal for the time.  Over the years I have come across many more children born to a couple over a shorter time frame as well.

As we all used to say... the grandies had nothing else to do.. no electricity out in the sticks where they lived.

Cheers
Karenlee

[omega 1]

Hello

My "Welsh " Greatgrandmother had my Gran ( only child ) at 42.I bet she wondered what had hit her

omega

[Chasing-fireflies]

So it wasn't unusual for women to be still having children in their 40's then? 

[groom]

I have several in my tree who were still having children in their 40s. However, I also have a few in their 50s with a child aged 1 or 2 after a large age gap and an older daughter in their 20s still at home. I think a bit of covering up may have gone on in some cases.

[Galium]

In the families I have traced, women typically had their last child between the ages of 40-45.  Before reliable contraception was widely available, there was no way they could avoid bearing children into their forties, other than by complete abstinence.  A woman who married at the age of 21 could easily expect to be pregnant for most of the next twenty years.

[eadaoin]

OH's great-grandmother was married in 1866, aged 19.
Between 1866 and 1892 she gave birth to 11 children all of whom lived to adulthood.

So she was 46 when she had the last one .. there are no gaps greater than 3 years in her family.

eadaoin

[Flora1966]

My grandmother had her first child in 1934 and her 13th and last child in 1960....She was born in 1916 and was an only child.... 

Jules..

[MonicaL]

20 years for childbearing is a good rule of thumb generally.....up to probably the mid 1900s I would think at least.

Monica