Now Ladies, there certainly were cases of sexual abuse then just as there are now, but it was not the major reason for women/girls to marry young... 1.They may have matured earlier; 2.They may have wanted to get out of the house; 3.They could have considered it a good investment; 4.The marriage date may have hinged on when the Preacher filed the certificate...They declared their intentions to the community and lived together...until he came along; 5.The mother of the house may have died and they needed to disperse the children - my ggg-grandparents raised a "ward" which I cannot prove her origins...she shows up as a 3 year-old "pauper" on the first census, then a 13 year-old in the next census, and missing in the next...A descendant of the first husband thinks that her parents both died and no one in the community wanted another mouth to feed. She had several brothers who could work in the fields, but she was too young, so my ggg-grandparents took her in...Her marriage is listed in a Family Bible along with one of her children, although it is known that the marriage did not last and there were actually twin girls, one was never listed...so much mystery...we cannot jump to conclusions or even judge what they did by our standards...Those times were different... BTW - the Biblical story of Jacob and Rachel fits well here... if you calculate the ages, Jacob was 75 when he married Rachel, and she was only seven when he first saw her..."the old coot" >From: "Jon Lou" <jonlouis37@hotmail.com> >Reply-To: GA-ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com >To: GA-ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: Re: [GA-Roots] Marrying Ages and Sexual Abuse >Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 17:54:17 EDT > > >yep, every southern pappy only bred girls to abuse...only a depraved mind >would even insinuate this..and yes there are instances of sons fathering >children by thier mothers..but to use that as a major reason for marrying >young is simply false.. > >From: lynda wilson <lwilson@life.edu> >>Reply-To: GA-ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com >>To: GA-ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com >>Subject: [GA-Roots] Marrying Ages and Sexual Abuse >>Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 13:59:22 -0400 >> >>One of the lines I am researching for a friend had an 11 >>year old girl who got married. Her father was listed as the >>father of one of her older sister's children. Yes, it does >>happen. Whether you like it or not. >>Lynda >> >> > >________________________________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com > ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

"The old coot"......hmmmmm, my own great grandfather, George Abraham "Tobe" Stevens, met his wife to be when she was only five years old and he was twenty five. He stated she was the prettiest thing he ever saw and was gonna wait for her to grow and marry her. He did, too. She was 14 when he married her. At least this line didn't keep marrying it's cousins as in my father's line. It is as I have told it many times, I am my own 5th, 6th, and 7th cousin on my father's side, and am short of proving my mother is my father's own 6th cousin thru her grandmother's line (GREER). ear