« Reply #34 on: Friday 12 February 21 21:28 GMT (UK) »
Let’s refer to the females as women or young women, not girls. The men involved are not called boys, even if they were teenagers.
Viktoria, not picking on you in particular, its use is ubiquitous, it’s just that words do make a difference in how we think of things.
Women are much more than breeders, having a lot of children might have been a boon to a husband, but for women it meant long months of pregnancy, nursing, risking her life in childbirth, and running a household that likely wore her out.
Like many of us here, many of my female ancestors bore many children, and I am thankful to have been born into a time where childbearing was a choice, and modern conveniences and a modern husband meant I could actually enjoy being a mother.
Hear, hear.
Our ancestors did have it really hard, women especially. If she was expecting again, she still had to run the house while the husband went out to work, I guess the older children started to help around the house aged 5 or 6, or earlier, to ease the pressure.
The bridal pregnancy in our ancestors days tells a story, that sex before marriage was rife, and probably not as condemned as perceived to be.
Researching:
LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain