Hi Ailsa, May I suggest that Marie Stopes may well have had a strong influence on the birth rate around the early 1900's. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wstopes.htm Regards, Michele -----Original Message----- From: Ailsa Petrie [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 23 January 2006 06:26 To: [email protected] Subject: [NYorks] Family Size in England 1920-1940 I have been doing some intensive searching of GRO Indexes for the period 1920-1940 and it has raised an issue that interests me. In the families I have been searching for, it seems that the numbers of children born has dropped markedly, to 1 or 2 children per family.<snip>