Historical Human Fecundity info?
Upvote:1
Such a study would be quite local, requiring a detailed study of church records for baptisms, marriages and deaths.
I can provide some information from 19th century:
1802: Lucinda Pixley, age 19, married at age 19 to David Powers, in Vermont They had two daughters, in 1802 and 1808. The family moved to New York; the husband died in 1813, while serving in the US Army. They may have had some other difficulties as well, but documentation is sparse.
1817: Vinera Powers, age 15, married Samuel Stillman Glover, in upstate New York. They had 11 children, with one set of twins, between 1818 and 1847. Most of the gaps were 2 years or so, with one much longer gap of five years. The family moved to Michigan. The mother and new born twins died in 1847.
1860: Annette Glover, age 16, married Jesse Youngs in Michigan. They were married for 64 years. They had 17 children, of whom 9 lived to adulthood, between 1861 and 1898. There were several long gaps of 5 and 6 years. She was 54 when her final child was born; the final seven all died as infants, and were left out of the family bible record, but have birth and death certificates.
Annette Glover & Jesse Youngs, 50nd wedding anniversary. Image from our family archive. Ella (Youngs) Kelly and her husband, C.J. Kelly, are on the left.
1879: Ella Youngs, age 16, married Christian James Kelly in Michigan. They were married for 38 years, and had 11 children between 1880 and 1896. Eight of the children lived to adulthood, with three dying as young children.
1913: Eloise Kelly, age 17, married Harlan Foster in Michigan. They were married for seven years and had three children, all living to adulthood. Her husband was absent for two years while a member of the AEF serving in Europe, and they divorced shortly after his return.
These are five generations of the same family. The large families all lived on farms, under stable circumstances. The husbands were often much older than the wives. By 1900 the economic situation was changing, and only two of the children of this final generation had large families.
From general research on these and other families the typical spacing of children is every two years, with the first child born within a year of the marriage. Note that a nursing mother will ordinarily not conceive, so unless a wet nurse is being used, spacing of less than two years is uncommon in older times, though goats milk is a workable replacement.
More post
- 📝 What is the origin of Friedensreich Hundertwasser's surname?
- 📝 Were drugs used in early Buddhist traditions?
- 📝 Luftwaffe Operations from Syria/Iraq in 1942
- 📝 How did medieval cities get rid of waste?
- 📝 How did Native Americans refer to themselves in the 19th century?
- 📝 Why has Hainan been so little fought over?
- 📝 What is an open city?
- 📝 What was the reason of extreme anti-Communism in the first half of 20th century?
- 📝 What is the origin of the "wheat and chessboard" legend?
- 📝 Why were nomadic tribes (like the Mongols) from the Eurasian steppes a much reduced threat from the 15th century onwards?
- 📝 Did Freemasons motivate Spain's expulsion of Jesuits?
- 📝 When and why did the use of the lifespans of royalty to limit clauses in contracts come about?
- 📝 Why is Britain the only country called "perfidious"?
- 📝 What were the potential consequences of Israel's strike on the Osirak reactor?
- 📝 How did Gothic differ from Baroque architecture?
- 📝 When did the Romans finally acknowledge that they were living in an empire?
- 📝 Evolution of the names of slaves
- 📝 Did being a "Philhellene" in ancient times mean you were not a Greek?
- 📝 Was literacy ever used as a tool to oppress the population by higher social classes?
- 📝 Why did sculpture and architecture become unpainted white, like skeletons of the dead?
- 📝 Who was the first woman to be made a god by Rome's senate?
- 📝 Did Louis XIV actually say "The State? I am the State."? Could he have said it?
- 📝 Henry I. (the Fowler): What kind of contact to hostages was seen as appropriate?
- 📝 Has the UK ever used the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 to enter an embassy without approval?
- 📝 What was the first recorded instance of burning a city or village in war?
- 📝 What happened to the Wehrmacht after the German surrender?
- 📝 Rules to correctly write an ancient Roman date
- 📝 What is the significance of barley as opposed to wheat in Ancient Rome?
- 📝 What would the style of wanted posters be in 1500's
- 📝 Can someone identify this coin? ΤΙΓΡΑΝΟ(Υ) (Β)ΑΣΙΛΕΩ(Σ)
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Historical Human Fecundity info?
- 📝 What was the historical context of the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution?
- 📝 Are there historical examples of audiences drawn to a work that was "so bad it's good"?
- 📝 What is a major historical event historians are deeply divided over?
- 📝 What is the historical basis for the Exodus?
- 📝 Is there a historical explanation as to why the USA people are so litigious compared to the French?
- 📝 Is there a historical precedent to the vaccine scare?
- 📝 Is this medieval picture of hanging 5 royals showing an historical event?
- 📝 Did Germany's role in WW2 affect the historical perception of its role in WW1?
- 📝 Are there historical instances of the capital of a colonising country being temporarily or permanently shifted to one of its colonies?
- 📝 Is there a record of a rabid human attacking another human?
- 📝 What is the historical basis for the claim that "Taiwan has always been part of China"?
- 📝 What are good online sources for historical maps?
- 📝 What was the shortest time between a historical event occuring and a museum opening dedicated to said event?
- 📝 What cultures did, or do, perform human sacrifice on a regular basis?
- 📝 What is the last historical mention of people worshipping the Roman gods?
- 📝 How do historians verify historical claims?
- 📝 Hiring professionals to transcribe historical documents
- 📝 Is the scarlet letter 'A' a real historical thing?
- 📝 Are there historical texts in England querying where Roman structures came from?
- 📝 When did the use of fabricated speeches in historical works go out of fashion?
- 📝 Which lost historical documents, when uncovered, led to the most substantial revisions in historiography?
- 📝 What is the state of the art historical analysis of claims that Carthaginians discovered America?
- 📝 What are these historical references (from a novel)?
- 📝 Are there historical instances of settlers who were largely uncontacted and undisturbed after settling?
- 📝 What historical conditions (culture, technology, events, etc.) contributed to China's current lead in population?
- 📝 Before the Land Bridge Theory, how was human presence in the Americas explained?
- 📝 Are there ancient historical sources which have been permanently lost?
- 📝 If modern human existed for hundreds of thousands years why was writing invented only some 7000-9000 years ago?
- 📝 What historical reasons did the Nazis give for hating the Jews? How did they identify non-practicing Jews?