I just returned from Richmond and the National Genealogical Society annual conference. It was great to connect with fellow genealogists! I took a tour of the Capital, attended informative sessions, and talked to the people who came to our SLIG (Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy) booth. I’m so glad I went, and I am looking forward to utilizing what I learned in my future research.
On to this week’s topic, which is So Many Descendants. Are you aware it takes 4,094 ancestors for us to be born, according to Ancestral Math.
My 9x great-grandmother Mary Loomis Barber, was one of 12 children.
Fast forward to now. I am an only child, and I don’t have children. I have seven first cousins on either side of my family.
My father has two brothers, and my mother, three. Going back a generation, one grandmother had 2 brothers and 3 sisters, and the other also had 2 brothers, four sisters.
I come from a long line of farmers. I’m in the generation where some of us have worked corporate careers. I have observed from my own family that the number of children is in direct relation to how much farmland we have owned. An article from the website Quartz.com entitled “The decline of the large US family, in charts) talks about how it was common in 1850 for families to have six to nine children. The authors feel it’s partially an economic decision because some would live long enough to care for them in their old age.[1]
Family size started to become smaller starting around 1920. The industrialization of America created opportunities for women to work outside of the home. Many children made it more difficult for that to happen.
I like to research families, no matter the size. Reach out for a free consultation. I will review your existing information, and work with you to determine the question(s) you wish answered.
- Ephrat Livni, Dan Kopf, “The decline of the large US family, in charts”, Quartz.com, (https://qz.com/1099800/average-size-of-a-us-family-from-1850-to-the-present : accessed 06 June 2023)