Families in 1700’s to Mid 1800’s

Origins of a family have meaning and history. By keeping track of family relations also known as a family tree it can allow us to keep records of the past. The Edwards family tree shows great record from the early 1700’s to the mid 1800’s. This family tree demonstrates when a person was baptized; when they got married; and when they passed away. The Edwards family chart show the different relations of marriages and fertility rate from today’s society. From the chart we can determine that the Edwards family show a different demography compared to todays society.

This is because life expectancy was shorter; families were larger; and finally marriages were happening at a young age. According to the Edwards family tree life expectancy was not high. Many of the family members barely lived up to sixty, which was very common in the 1700’s. The family tree shows many children dying at a young age; some barely reaching adolescent age. Since child death was very high it showed that health care was very poor; which lead people to have more children. In today’s society life expectancy has expanded enormously.

Many young children live for a longer time because of better health care. Having a sibling die before they could reach their twenty would be very unlikely because of the amazing health care we have and our environment has improved since the 1800’s. The average size of a family during the 1700’s would be 7. 5, which is completely larger than the family size in todays culture. Looking at the family tree many couples had a large set of family. Some of the families had more than six children, which is over our regular family size. Since families were big some of the children carried on names of their parents.

For example Thomas Edward who was married to Sarah Potman named their first child Thomas. Even after Sarah Potman death he remarried Mary and also named their first child Thomas. That was because names were meant to be carried on and remembered. If we compare that to today’s family, families would be much smaller and usually wouldn’t have the dame name as their father. Looking at the chart it is hard to tell when some of the women were born because it was not recorded. However looking at the Edwards family tree many of the women got married in their 20’s.

Some of these women were pregnant while getting married. On the another hand the men got married in their mid to late twenties which is a lot older compare to the women. For example Thomas Edward son of Thomas and Sarah Potman got married to Sarah White at the age of thirty-four. As we can see there is a big age difference between the male and females. From the Edwards family tree most of the women had children right away. Some were even pregnant at marriage, for example Richard Edward who married Mary Deets in 1730 and at the same year had their first child Sarah Ewards.

This shows some couples were involved with each other before marriage, however on the family tree some couples waited a year or two to have children. For example John Edward who married Elizabeth Ward in 1739 their first kid John Edwards was born 1742, that is three years after they got married. From the family tree it seemed uncommon for a married couple to wait a year or two years later to have children; which is really different compare to today because many marry couples wait at least three years to have children.

Since Many families did have plenty of children and gave birth right after marriage it seemed that child birth was not planned. Looking at the chart many married couples had children one after another. Shows that there was no limitation on having children, which was very common during the 1700’s. Looking at today’s society there are limitation on having children because of economic reasons; it is more expensive to raise children.

In conclusion the Edwards family tree from the parish registers of Terling, Essex have a different view of life compared to today’s society. The diagram has a complete different overview from today’s society. The Edwards family tree has a different outlook from todays culture because of the life expectancy, families were larger, and finally marriages were involved at a younger age. Altogether the Edwards family tree is proven to be a lot different then what we expect today. Comparing modern families from our own show great differences.