A cautionary tale.

[zetlander]

It was 1940 and Aunt Florence came home early to find her 19 year old daughter - putting it bluntly - in bed with her boyfriend - a seaman on leave.
Aunt Florence immediately sent a letter to the Navy H Q and said seaman was 'advised!' to marry the daughter (daughter not pregnant.)
Wedding hastily arranged and all lived happily? for 12 months.

[Girl Guide]

Yes, no doubt that was the way of the world at that time.  If you were caught in flagrante delicto, that was it.  Off to the church or registry office regardless of whether the couple concerned really wanted to get married.

Today couples live together and either never marry or do so some years down the line.

It seems to me that moral values have slipped somewhat.

[coombs]

That is probably why several of our ancestors married, a quick dalliance, it was uncovered, and they were forced to marry either due to his job, or if she soon found out she was pregnant. Or they were in a relationship and she got pregnant then they had to get married, or sometimes they waited for a pregnancy to prove fertility before getting married.

[Mike in Cumbria]

Today couples live together and either never marry or do so some years down the line.

It seems to me that moral values have slipped somewhat.

I don't think this means that moral values have slipped at all. It could be said that there's a lot less hypocrisy and double standards now than a generation or two ago.

[Guy Etchells]

I don't think moral values have slipped but moral standards definately have, in many different ways.
Cheers
Guy

[Erato]

"sent a letter to the Navy H Q and said seaman was 'advised!' to marry the daughter"

So, in effect, the government used an implicit threat to force the man to marry the woman.  I don't see any morality in that.

[Ayashi]

Even if people married sensibly and in love, things can easily change. Sometimes I wonder how many of my ancestors, married for the lengths of their lives, actually hated each other.

[coombs]

A marriage of convenience, if a man was widowed with children, he would often remarry within a few months or so.

[goldie61]

Even if people married sensibly and in love, things can easily change. Sometimes I wonder how many of my ancestors, married for the lengths of their lives, actually hated each other.

Quite a few of them I would expect. Even though divorce was virtually impossible for most people, and society frowned on marriage break-ups, they didn't necessarily just put up with it though. I have three instances of this.
My own grandmother left my grandfather when  she was pregnant with their 9th child - this is well over 100 years ago now. She went to live hundreds of miles away with a friend and her husband. I never did find out the whole story - nobody would talk about it of course when I was small. She went back to him after the baby was born, and then he died not longer afterwards (her husband).

My 4x great grandmother in Scotland left her husband in one town, and lived with her daughter in another town. He died with no family near him. I wonder if they even went to his funeral?

And back in the very early 1700s in Cheshire, my 7x great grandmother left her husband and went to live with her sister and husband. It's all written in my 7x great grandfather's will that she lives with this other man. - 'as she voluntarily left me'.  No mention that the other man was married to her sister - I had to dig deep to find that out. In his will he does pay her maintenance of three pounds a year as long as she "shall not live upon the said tenements any ways to molest my sons".
I'd love to have been a fly on the wall to find out what that was all about!

I think to think these women were strong and brave to do this, despite the restrictions on womens' lives at those times.