Genealogy Chat

I have today received more marriage certs for my great & gggrandparents & so far all on all of them the woman is older than the man, & I to have younger husband, must be something genetic. Clare

These things do seem to run in families.......my stepdaughter's chap is younger than her, as was her husband. Her daughter married a younger man, and her son married an older woman............. Reg

hi claire, does seem to run in familys, a few of my rellies liked them younger. cant fault them myshelf, my hubbys 10 years younger too.

Yes, I've seen this often in my family tree, too. In Victorian times, if a woman had been left a widow with children, she often married again out of convenience to prevent ending up in the workhouse - and you will see in a lot of cases that her 2nd hubby is a lot younger than herself (I have several of mine who married men 10-15 yrs younger). (I remember reading somewhere that the men saw this as a way of gaining personal possessions because more than likely his older wife would not be around for that long and he would then inherit all her worldly goods and free to marry the next older woman.) So it was convenient for both parties. Then you have the men who marry much younger women. My own Grt Grandfather was 36 years older than his second wife!! That was an arrangement of sorts...her mother seizing the opportunity to see her daughter well-provided for! Of course, others (like me haha) are just blessed with very good genes and look 10-20 years younger than they actually are and so attract a younger person - yes, for some reason I always end up with younger men, too!

It did seem a lot more common back then - have to say it surprised me when I first started this - you can get women up to 20 years older cant you! My GGMx2 starts off in the 1851 as just 4 years older than hubby by the 1871 she is a full 8 years older and from her baptism she was in fact 12 years older!

I'm transcribing the 1861 census for Whitchurch Hampshire at the moment, for FreeCen, and I have noticed that in most families, the wife is older than the husband. Very few families had a younger wife.