‘A lot younger’ was usually still in their twenties, unless they were nobility getting married off for political reasons.
In the olden days, when people got married a lot younger, there were probably lots of grandparents in their thirties
Submitted 3 weeks ago by FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Comments
starlinguk@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Median lifespan was also fairly close to ours even though the average was way down. High infant and child mortality rates skews things.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
I actually did the maths. My grandfather and his siblings in his family had an average age of like 50. But it’s because two of his siblings died before their first birthday and one shortly after. The next person to die was like 60.
JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The average age of a groom in Britain in the 19th century was 27.
Men were generally unable to marry until they had obtained property.
And the average age was higher than the 20th century as well, because of the high infant mortality rate, it wasn’t a “society of young people” at all.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
I actually did the maths. My grandfather and his siblings in his family had an average age of like 50. But it’s because two of his siblings died before their first birthday and one shortly after. The next person to die was like 60.
Drekaridill@feddit.is 3 weeks ago
I know a man who became a grandfather at 34. He had a daughter at 16 and she had a kid at 18.
j4k3@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
When I was a kid I had great great grandparents I visited. There were old people that talked about up to 4 generations of great, so great great great great grandparents were still alive. Yes, I’m originally from Alabama.
atk007@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yes, I’m originally from Alabama.
Well if we go by stereotype, were any one of them siblings as well?
PrimarilyPrimate@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I had Great-Great Grandparents in my life until I was in my late teens because of this.
IWW4@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Oh hell yes and they want that long ago. When I was 16 (1980s) I was friends with a girl also 16 whose mother was 31 and her grandmother was mid 40s. Both the mom and grandmom gave birth at 15/16.
As an aside They were cool as can be and most of my circle of friends would hangout at her house
WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I had a friend in hs with a pretty identical family situation (in the early 2000s) She was in her 20s for her first kid.
tipicaldik@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I once met a 32 year old lady holding her 1 year old grandson. She told me she had her daughter at 16 and her daughter had to out-do her and have her baby at 15. At the time, I was her age with my own small children…
Jarix@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Sounds Catholic
JelloBrains@piefed.zip 3 weeks ago
I knew both of my Great Grandmothers, our family had a habit of starting early so to speak. One of them died when I was a teen from Alzheimer's and the one I was super close with and took for donuts and beer runs died the year I turned 21 just a couple of days after we went out for dinner, it was a soul crushing reality in how things can change without warning.
baldingpudenda@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Grandma married at 16, they eloped and Gpa was 19. First Kid at 17. Gdaughter at 36( Gma had her last kid at 35), GGdaughter at 57. And I believe GGGson at 74. Which I’m pretty sure is far enough removed that they’re no longer family. We had a huge celebration for their 65 year anniversary. We counted the sign in and it was 120ish kids not counting the aunts and uncles. It was weird to me having my friends picked up from school by their dads when I was sure it was their grandpas. Meanwhile my youngest aunt and oldest cousin where basically sisters growing up.
Flamekebab@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
In my family the men tend to have children quite late in life. I'm nearing 40 and my grandfather was a Victorian (born 1897).
sxan@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
Life expectancy tended to be a lot lower, too. Once you lost your teeth, it was only matter of time. With no antibiotics, any injury that broke skin could be a death sentance, and over 30, 40 years, the odds stack up.
Childbirth was a pretty dangerous thing for women, too.
squaresinger@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That’s a bit of a misconception. Life expectancy doesn’t measure the age at which most people die, but the average life expectancy.
That means, a bunch of different values contribute to the life expectancy and they do so to a wildly different degree.
Let’s say that without any adverse effects everyone dies of old age at around age 90.
Someone dieing of pulmonia at age 80 only scratches off 10 years, but someone dieing at age 0 due some childhood illness, bad hygiene, malnutrition or other complications scratches off 90 years.
In fact, by far the strongest contributor to the average life expectancy is child mortality. In 1800 in the USA, child mortality was at 46.2%.
If you discount child mortality, most people actually died aged 65-90.
Aggravationstation@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Yea human lifespan hasn’t really changed over time but as you say infant mortality, pandemics, war and a complete lack of industrial safety for over a century have skewed the average over the years.
Dorkyd68@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
My grandparents were married when 15. They ran away from home in California and settled down in Oklahoma where my family still resides
MikeyU@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
On my mom’s side, my grandmother became a grandmother for the first time at 40. On the other hand, on my father’s side, both grandparents were born in the 1880s.
Aggravationstation@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
I know plenty of people who are grandparents in their 30s today.
medem@lemmy.wtf 2 weeks ago
My father and his first wife married at 17, had their first child at 18. She (i.e. that first child) had her first child at 17, who in turn had her first child at 18. My father thus became grandfather at 35, great-grandfather at 53; and I became uncle at about 7, great-uncle at about 25. Kinda cool tbh.
roofuskit@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Still very common in the American South and probably other third world countries. Hasidic communities as well marry young and have lots of children.
CorruptCheesecake@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
roofuskit@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yeah, that was very intentional.