There are two answers to this question. The average age for a man was 25/26 yrs and 21yrs for a girl and the first baby usually came along nine months later.This is a good way of ascertaining the marriage date of a couple if you have a birth certificate for the child. Where there was emigration it must be remembered that the family had to find the money and this probably was not easy but it was done on the basis that the Son or daughter were going away to make a better life for themselves and marriage was postponed so that there would not be the encumbrance of young children. But, many of the male species married much later and to much younger women. They waited for 'The Mammy' to die and then married a young woman to keep them in the manner to which they had become accustomed.ie. be waited on hand and foot. Maureen