Hello Everyone, Would a 16 year old girl/woman, who married in Ireland in 1867, be around the average age to marry at that time ? Birth records indicate that she wasn't pregnant. Her first recorded child was born a year later. If not, what was norm for that time period to marry? Sixteen is such a young age? Different times, different way of life. Thanks, Dan Harrington

Apparently my great great grandmother Sally Stack was 16 when she married Pat McKenna age 30 in Listowel, Kerry c. 1832...they had about 14 children that I know of...before moving to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan c. 1862. /Susan On Jan 25, 2013, at 8:48 AM, Dan Harrington wrote: > Hello Everyone, > > Would a 16 year old girl/woman, who married in Ireland in 1867, be around > the average age to marry at that time ? Birth records indicate that she > wasn't pregnant. Her first recorded child was born a year later. > > If not, what was norm for that time period to marry? Sixteen is such a > young age? Different times, different way of life. > > Thanks, > Dan Harrington > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Dan, all, It's not impossible that a 16 year old girl would be a bride in 1867, but it's a bit unusual. My great-grandmother, Mary Holland, married when she was 22. I think that's a more typical age for women to be entering into marriages, somewhere in their early 20s. Since it's sometimes better to look at actual research rather than just pontificating, I've looked around online. You can see in http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Ireland_society_and_economy_1815ndash1870 and http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/2262/4266/1/jssisiVolXVIXPart4_82103.pdf that the average age for tinker girls (the daughters of the traveling people) was about 20, and for girls in families that had established farms it was more like 22 at the time of the Great Famine, increasing to ~25 as you go out to 1870. Men tended to marry at much older ages, typically in their 40s. I didn't find a specific reference for Beara, and it's possible the numbers were a bit different in Beara due to its isolation from the rest of Ireland, though I suspect the average age at marriage was about the same in Beara as elsewhere in Ireland. The other thing to remember in any discussion of Irish womens' ages is that our ancestresses exercised the "woman's privilege" of claiming an age not in strict agreement with the calendar. So a girl of 20 summers might have only claimed 16 of them when she went to the altar. I hope that helps. Bill Gawne Dan Harrington <[email protected]> writes: > Hello Everyone, > > Would a 16 year old girl/woman, who married in Ireland in 1867, be around > the average age to marry at that time ? Birth records indicate that she > wasn't pregnant. Her first recorded child was born a year later. > > If not, what was norm for that time period to marry? Sixteen is such a > young age? Different times, different way of life. > > Thanks, > Dan Harrington

Bill, thank you for the very interesting links! María Teresa 2013/1/25 Bill Gawne <[email protected]> > Hi Dan, all, > > It's not impossible that a 16 year old girl would be a bride in 1867, > but it's a bit unusual. My great-grandmother, Mary Holland, married > when she was 22. I think that's a more typical age for women to be > entering into marriages, somewhere in their early 20s. > > Since it's sometimes better to look at actual research rather than > just pontificating, I've looked around online. You can see in > > http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Ireland_society_and_economy_1815ndash1870 > > and > > http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/2262/4266/1/jssisiVolXVIXPart4_82103.pdf > > that the average age for tinker girls (the daughters of the traveling > people) was about 20, and for girls in families that had established > farms it was more like 22 at the time of the Great Famine, increasing > to ~25 as you go out to 1870. Men tended to marry at much older ages, > typically in their 40s. > > I didn't find a specific reference for Beara, and it's possible the > numbers were a bit different in Beara due to its isolation from the > rest of Ireland, though I suspect the average age at marriage was > about the same in Beara as elsewhere in Ireland. > > The other thing to remember in any discussion of Irish womens' ages is > that our ancestresses exercised the "woman's privilege" of claiming an > age not in strict agreement with the calendar. So a girl of 20 > summers might have only claimed 16 of them when she went to the altar. > > I hope that helps. > > Bill Gawne > > Dan Harrington <[email protected]> writes: > > > Hello Everyone, > > > > Would a 16 year old girl/woman, who married in Ireland in 1867, be around > > the average age to marry at that time ? Birth records indicate that she > > wasn't pregnant. Her first recorded child was born a year later. > > > > If not, what was norm for that time period to marry? Sixteen is such a > > young age? Different times, different way of life. > > > > Thanks, > > Dan Harrington > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message >