Older women do have babies naturally. when I was happily having my younger child in a far north Queensland hospital many long years ago, there was a lady there having a baby, they had brought her in early so she was very cheerful and chatty with the rest of us, while waiting for the event as she was the matriarch of family running a big cattle station in the gulf country and it was the wet season.. So just in case they got flooded in, she came to hospital early. She was a 51 year old grey haired grandma, her youngest child was 12 years old. her married daughters and grandchildren visited her and yes she had her baby ok and this big family gathered around and celebrated and I thought even if she didnt live to a ripe old age, the baby boy would have a mountain of family to help. But they breed them tough up there so perhaps she is still mustering cattle in her 90s.. I had to laugh as there were a couple of 14 year old unmarried girls also there having babies and and one whispered to the other "isn't it DISGUSSSTING, that old woman having a baby!" Marg -----Original Message----- From: Irene Marlborough via Sent: Thursday, January 1, 2015 1:06 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [YORKSGEN] Maternal Lines I agree with Colin. I don't think that you can always be sure of the mother. A major problem in my family tree concerns a child apparently born in 1858 to a 62 year old father and his 2nd wife aged about 45. The child was born (according to a baptism record) 4 months after they got married. So this is just about possible BUT this child's birth was not registered when all post 1837 births of children from the 1st marriage were registered. AND in the household at the time was a 17 year old daughter who subsequently failed to marry at the usual time. So who was the child's mother? Another case involves my Thornton Dale EVERS family. My ancestor Benjamin shows up on the 1841 census aged 11 months. His supposed mother's age is given as 49. In 1851, Benjamin's age is 11 and his supposed mother is 63. On the face of it, this seems obviously a case where Benjamin must be the illegitimate child of one of the unmarried daughters of the family. However, more than one illegitimate child of these daughters had already been acknowledged so why cover up Benjamin's situation? Definitely a case for DNA, if ever I could find the right people to test and then be able to afford all the testing required to resolve the situation. Regards, Irene ------------------------------- 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