Genealogy Chat

Hi

What is the oldest age any of you have discovered an ancestor giving birth for the last time? I am asking because my ggggrandmother Clara Emma Auber was born to a mother Elizabeth who was 51 and am asking if it is possible to give birth at 51 because I would like to at least try and quash any rumours that she was actually the illeg daughter of one of her much older sisters.

She was baptised as John and Elizabeth daughter and when she married aged 20 she put John as father on 1856 marriage cert. Her mum lived to 73 and it was only her heart that gave out.

I have mentioned this before but am pretty confuddled over it all? Even in the 1830s when there was no IVF was it possible to give birth at 51?

Ben

There is a article in the sunday mirror today about a 57 year old lady with a lump on her stomach when they scaned it expecting it to be cancer the doctor said congratulations you are 30 weeks pregnant

Roy

I think it's verging on the unlikely.

My gr gr grandmother was born c1800. Married 1815 - had first child in 1816 and last child in 1842. When I first found the children's details I was a bit concerned as I assumed she would have been about 20 when the married, making her about 47 or so when last child was born. I thought that was unlikely. It was only when I managed to find her on earlier censuses that I worked out she was 16 when she had her first child.

51 does seem a bit old.

Roy - that woman is having IVF though isn't she? Wasn't she on the news yesterday?

According to the paper she gave up IVF a while ago as it did not work for her.

Roy

hi i have an aunt that was 53 when she gave birth and she wasnt on any fertility treatment so you can never tell trevor

Hi

My ancie (new abbrev for ancestor) had 9 children before her alleged last child. She was 43 when she had her previous child in 1827 and had 8 children before that, so I have worked out that prior to giving birth at 51, she'd have spent 6 years of her life pregnant.

If she started her periods at say 13, and the normal menopause is around 50, Elizabeth might have been menstruating until 55. Trevor and Ethel might be suggesting something here?

Ben

Hia Benjamin
I know this isn't much help but when i was 19 due with my first having contractions in a ward bed ,i can always remember this really old woman who too was expecting (would'nt know what age she was.) Just brought back memory's .She was bawling and shouting that she'd had lots of kids .She looked at least 60 lol. Hope you get to find out anyway sounds interesting.
Avril

They might have been hiding embarrasment but otherwise why would John and Elizabeth baptise her as their last child if they were the grandparents and then for Clara to put her father down on her marriage cert?

Sometimes grandparents did look after the illegitimate offspring of one of their daughters but did they necessarily baptise the babe as their child under their name if they were grandparents??

Ive just seen one who had 20 children last one at 62 !

I have just traced a great aunt's youngest child, born in 1919. The mom was born at the end of 1866, which makes her nearly 53 when she finally ran out of steam.

Good thought re. baptism, Benjamin. I have a few interesting puzzles in my tree - my grandma gave birth to my mum aged 42 years 10 months (that I know to have been a genuine pregnancy because she got married at 7 months gone!).

I have a 4xgreat aunt who gave birth to twelve children between 1823 (aged 21) and 1845 (aged 43).

There is a 3xgreat-grandmother who did give birth aged 43 in 1910, but this woman also had a "sister" who was born fifteen years after her youngest sister (in 1889/1890). Because the other children of the family were then aged 27, 26, 24, 23, 19 and 15 and all were girls, and none married before this "sister" was born, we can't decide if the parents were covering up the existence of an illegitimate grandchild, whether she really was their child or whether she was a child from outside the family circle who was taken in.

(Although she was born in c. 1889, she does not have a birth certificate in the name I expected her to, so anything is possible. Her "father" did have a criminal record so I don't think evasion of a birth registration would have cost him many sleepless nights! If I can just get to her baptism record . . . )

Hi

I think I will go with the notion that Clara was indeed a late arrival to the family. Elizabeth lived a long life and there was no birth control in those days so it is possible that she because pregnant at 50 and was 51 by the time of the birth as she turned 51 in July and her babe was born in dec. She only just managed another pregnancy but did manage it I assume.

It is possible to have a child naturally at 51. There was a documentary on TV a few months ago about a couple who had got together in their 50's. The woman went to her doc about contraception and he told them not to bother as her periods had more or less stopped. 9 months later she became Britains oldest natural Mother at.....................



















56!

These might be of interest

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/20/nbirth120.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/09/npregnant109.xml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregnancy_over_age_50

I've got one ancestor who must have had a son in her very early 50s. Those of us descended from her children have tried to make sense of the data but to make the dates fit she has to be an older mother.

To fit all the known facts she had to marry her first husband early and have her first set of children when in her late teens and early 20s. She was widowed and married again. Her next set of children finished when she must have been around 50 years old. There was a gap of about 30 years between the oldest and youngest.

She married again when 2nd husband died but no more children!

Several of us have discussed this lady in detail and we can't find any alternative scenario.

Sue
x

I read that the oldest mother was 63 in about 1980.

I would go with the notion that Clara was indeed a late arrival to Elizabeth. 51 is just about the normal upper limit to have a baby.

I suppose it was harder to cope with a pregnancy at 51 in those days because life expectancy was shorter and that Elizabeth might of thought that she'd be dead by the time her daughter was 10. But she lived to 73. Clara's dad died when she was 8. He was 60.