Roy you are making us think!!! Yeah, what about the list I found in Wisconsin yesterday where the average age of marriage was 30 for the men and 15 for the women! That was interesting. Even one man over 30 and married a 14 year old, with the parents blessings . There was a long list of this age difference. Then there are women like me, who married and no children until age 40 and 42 when my two darlings came along. It threw myself & husband of 18 years for a loop! I can see someone in a hundred years from now hunting our situation across ten states wondering where all the other children are? GRIN! But I think the reason for the estimate is to use it as a TOOL for hunting the normal family at the time. It does help in lots of cases. As you stated it can be very misleading if one assumes this is the rule for their families and puts it in writing or print as the time and place for their lines. I do see this in print quite often here. It is the same as the old thinking; "If you are hunting the wife and her family look in a 25 mile radius of his home, as people didn't travel back then" That one bothers me as much as the age guessing game. This was a country of very mobile people! Look there first, but remember many traveled miles by water ways and old Indian trails to new territories too. It is not unusual to find the new wife hundreds of miles from "home". I was entering data in my computer files on some of the early Quakers in my lines. They start out in Bucks county PA, and end up all over the eastern half of the nation in the early 1700's. Goodness they were not afraid to travel all over this new nation. Usually in like religions, but not always. Usually with other family and close friends, but not always. Just remember where the lines of the nation ended at the time and where "West " and "South" were. Good maps and history can help there. SEA "Life is what happens while you are making other plans"