Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- How Many Children Did Your Ancestors Have?

  Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1)  Thinking about your direct ancestors back through 2nd great-grandparents - in other words, ancestors #2 to #31 on your pedigree chart - how many children did they have?  How many lived long enough to marry?  How many died before age 10?

2)  Tell us all about it in a blog post of your own, in comments on this blog post, or in a post on Facebook.  Be sure to link to them in a comment on this blog post.

Here's mine:

Using my ancestor report for my #2 to #31 ancestors I'm not counting children born to other spouses - only my ancestral families):

#2-3:  Frederick W. Seaver (1911-1983) and Betty V. Carringer (1919-2002) - 3 sons (3 married), 0 died before age 10.

#4-5:  Frederick W. Seaver (1876-`942) and Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962) - 3 sons (2 married), 4 daughters (4 married), 1 died before age 10

#6-7:  Lyle L. Carringer (1891-1976) and Emily K. Auble (1899-1977) - 1 daughter (1 married), 0 died before age 10.

#8-9:  Frank W. Seaver (1851-1922) and Harriet L. Hildreth (1857-1920) - 3 sons (2 married), 1 died before age 10.

#10-11:  Thomas Richmond (1848-1917) and Julia E. White (1848-1913) - 4 sons (3 married), 5 daughters (5 married), 1 died before age 10.

#12-13:  Henry A. Carringer (1853-1946) and Della A. Smith (1862-1944) - 2 sons (1 married), 1 daughter (1 married), 0 died before age 10.

#14-15:  Charles Auble (1849-1916) and Georgianna Kemp (1868-1952) - 1 daughter (1 married), 0 died before age 10.

#16-17:  Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) and Lucretia T. Smith (1828-1884) - 2 sons (2 married), 2 daughters (1 married), 0 died before age 10.

#18-19:  Edward Hildreth (1831-1899) and Sophia Newton (1834-1923) - 1 son (0 married), 1 daughter (1 married), 1 died before age 10.

#20-21:  James Richman (1821-1912) and Hannah Rich (1824-1911) - 4 sons (4 married), 5 daughters (3 married), 1 died before age 10.

#22-23:  Henry A. White (1824-1885) and Amy F. Oatley (1826-1864) - 2 sons (1 married), 4 daughters (3 married), 2 died before age 10.

#24-25:  David J. Carringer (1828-1902) and Rebecca Spangler (1832-1901) - 2 sons (1 married), 1 daughter (0 married), 0 died before age 10.

#26-27:  Devier J. Smith (1839-1894) and Abbie A. Vaux (1844-1931) - 1 son (1 married), 4 daughters (2 married), 0 died before age 10.

#28-29:  David Auble (1817-1894) and Sarah Knapp (1818-1904) - 2 sons (2 married), 4 daughters (3 married), 0 died before age 10.

#30-31:  James A. Kemp (1831-1902) and Mary Jane Sovereen (1840-1874) - 2 sons (1 married), 3 daughters (3 married), 0 died before age 10.

So there are 31 male children and 23 married, and 36 female children and 27 married.  

There were 15 families in this study, so the average was 4.5 children per family, and 3.3 children that married per family.

Two families had only one child, 1 had two children, 4 had three children, 1 had 4 children, 2 had 5 children, 2 had 6 children, 1 had 7 children, and 2 had 9 children.

My parents generation averaged 3.0 children, my grandparents generation averaged 4.0 children (and 0.5 died before age 10), my great-grandparents generation averaged 4.0 children (and 0.5 died before age 10), and my 2nd great-grandparents generations averaged 5.4 children (and 0.5 died before age 10).

I'm not sure what all of this indicates, other than the number of children was variable over 4 generations of my ancestors.  Perhaps that more children were born before the age of mass electricity and the age of mass entertainment?

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Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

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