Genealogy Chat

On my tree we have on one census an 23 year old daughter living with her parents, then there is a 5 year old grandson of the parents. On a later census he is down as their son, they were 74 and he was 17. I do believe however that some women can naturally have babies in their fifties but there must be a statistic somewhere which shows how uncommon it is.

My 2 great grandmothers can add to this. One of them [Ruth Jackson nee Hughes] gave birth to her last known child in 1894. She was b. 1849. So she was 45. My other great grandmother Bertha Shipley nee Appleton gave birth to her youngest child in 1897 when she was also 45. They both had far too many children, and only stopped when nature decreed it!

Hey Karen a few dirty nappies are the least of their worries I would say!!! After rinsing either down an outside toilet or running water boil the lot on a stove then anything that kills the germs (yes hubby's whiskey will do, if he could afford such expensive taste as whiskey), any alcholic to kill bacteria. The rest like good food, so as to avoid or help against the killer diseases like TB, (housing mainly) Typhoid, Tetanus, ricketts, most of the curable diseases or unheard of stuff these days like Polio (my Grandmother died of in 1930's) TB which took its toll for many decades (even I had it and my Mum, but tetracyclines saved our lives), My 2x great grandmother on her death cert died of bronchitis. Kill yourself slowly while working at least 30 - 40 years in a hazardous environment, and then end up in a workhouse when you could work no more. Oh the good old days, hey??? Pat x

Karen Yes, if you order the birth certificate it will give the true mother. It may not name the father! I have one identified in this way. On the census [1881] he was Thomas Nethercott. grandson of James and Martha Nethercott. I had to get his birth cert. It shows him to be Thomas Edward Gunn Nethercott, s/o Mary Jane Nethercott, servant.No father shown. I knew Mary Jane was one of the family---this was her son, but no father named [except by implication---Edward Gunn? The only one found in the area in the 1881 census was a married man! Was that he? Who knows!] But the mother IS named, always.

My mother-in -law remembers a woman of 63 who was pregnant but did not go to full term.that was back in the 50,s

Margaret, perhaps she just looked 63!!!

Or perhaps all the feathers fell out of the cushion?

Lol, Marjorie. But isn't it possible that a woman can get pregnant as long as she is menstruating? Medical advice used to be to take precautions for two years after the menopause and as I know someone who was 56 when that happened, I'd think that technically it was possible for her to have a child up to that age. Heather

I've recently discovered one I'm suspicious of. Couple have daughter in 1840, and 3 sons before 1850. Suddenly another daughter appears in late 1861/early 1862, after 1861 census anyway. The elder daughter married in 1862. Could her baby sister actually be her daughter? Who would be named as mother on the Birth Certificate, and would it be truthful. She later had a girl she gave the same name to. Helen

these ladies would be horrified to think their ancestors are digging up the dirt on their well covered secrets!! LOL

Heres a thought. Apparently you are born with all the eggs you will ever have, losing one or two every period. So if you kept getting pregnant, that means 9 months without losing any eggs, so it's going to take longer to get rid of them all!! Val

My gt grandma had 12 children, the last when she was past 50yrs. Her first child was born in 1910 and her last in 1932 Linda in Fife

I gave birth at the age of 45 in the late 1980's and it was PLANNED!! My first child was born when I was 20, then another at 22 but this last one was the easiest birth yet and with no help of pain relief!!.......Pam

Found this by googling: At birth, the ovaries contain nearly 400,000 ova, and those are all she will ever have. However, that is far more than she will need, since during an average lifespan she will go through about 500 menstrual cycles. Menopause The menopause is defined as the final episode of menstrual bleeding in women. The term is used commonly to refer to the transitional period up to and after the last episode of menstrual bleeding. During this period, there is a progressive loss of ovarian function and a variety of changes due to hormonal upset. The median age of women at the time of cessation of menstrual bleeding is 50 to 51 years. In the 5 years before menopause there is gradual increase in the number of anovulatory cycles - i.e. cycles without ovulation. During this period the estrogen secretion falls and there is increased pituitary secretion of LH and FSH hormones. The age of menopause varies widely. Before the menopause the interval between the menses is variable and it becomes longer and longer. The menopause is the consequence of the exhaustion of folicles in the ovaries of a female. The decrease in the number of ova begins in the womb itself. By the time of the menopause, few ova remain, and these appear to be nonfunctional. Only a small number of ova are lost as the result of ovulation during reproductive life. The stopping of follicular development results in decreased production of estradiol and other hormones. So you don't have to use up all your eggs before menopause or we'd still be menstruating in our 90s! Of course, its possible women experienced the menopause earlier than we do because they lacked nutrients in their diet. nell

One of my GG Nan's had her first child at the age of 19, she had last child (number14!) at the age of 44, and another one had her first child at the age of 20 and her last child (number 12) at the age of 40 - my g Nan, when my Nan was born she was already an Aunt to a one year! Going on my rellies stats I should be giving birth to child 6/7 now, but I havent even had child 1 - thank god for the pill! otherwise I would be like some of my rellies with loads of base born children or even worse married to the bloke I had my first "liason" with! Karen

My family heroine was my Gt Gt Grandma who lied about her age to marry at 16 (she said she was 20 on the cert!). She had her 1st child at 17, and her last (that we know of. We keep finding more!) at 42. She had 16 children, 13 of whom survived, and they lived in a tiny 2-up, 2-down house!!! She may have lost one early on as there is just over a year between her marriage and the first child! I can't believe they 'waited'!!! I only have 5 and she is an inspration to me, although I never knew her!

Karen, my husbands grandma had her first child a 17yrs old , followed by 12 more, the last one she was pregnant at 52 at the same time as her 5th youngest daughter! just 3 months between them. AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH! thank goodness for family history, and the television! I only had 3 children and that was enough. Our poor ancestors in the 1800's it must have been exhausting. judy

My mother was the oldest of nine children, born in just over ten years, of whom eight survived. My mother was very bitter about the fact that SHE, not my Grandmother, looked after these children and missed a lot of schooling because of it. It was a very poor family (Grandad was a professional drinker) and my mother remembers aged from about four, going to the beach ON HER OWN with a bucket to collect winkles. These would be served up with potatoes boiled in their skins and tipped into the middle of the table. My mother was so undernourished that she had rickets, so badly that someone (my mother couldnt remember who) paid for her to have an operation to straighten both her legs. She spent the following year in a convalescent home and in there tasted milk for the first time in her life! My Grandfather signed up in 1939 in a fit of drunken patriotism, was sent to Egypt and stayed there for seven years - no more children for Granny and a half-pay note too, improved things at home a lot. To be fair to my Granny, she had been brought up in the Workhouse and probably didnt have the faintest idea what children needed, even if she had had the money to provide it. We think today that the maternal instinct is a natural thing, but it isnt really, we learn by example and if you don't have an example to follow or an education, then what do you have? Oh and by the way, all eight children made a great success of their lives, none ever got in trouble with the law, nor ever claimed any benefits.

Definitely possible. My great grandmother had 13 children which she had between the age of 18 and 45. Kath. x