Remarriages and Blended Families

Back in January 2015 I wrote about mixed or blended families and how common they are in almost everyone’s family tree – blog post Don’t Forget About Those Half-Brothers and Sisters.

In three of the parishes I look after as an Online Parish Clerk, Cornwood, Plympton St. Mary and Plympton St. Maurice, the church registers contain a great many entries of second and, sometimes, third marriages of residents. I took the time to go through the lists to see how many remarriages had occurred and if there were any trends in the numbers.

The oldest entries do not always have a lot of information about the individuals who married but most parishes appear to have consistently recorded whether the bride and/or groom were widows or widowers. Following are the numbers of entries in the marriage registers for the three parishes that indicate whether one or both parties were widowed:

Plympton St. Mary
	Total Marriages	Widows & Widowers			% of Total Marriages	Both Parties Widowed
		Females	Males	Total		Number	% of Total
1600-1649	659	15	0	15	2.3%	0
1650-1699	498	3	2	5	1.0%	0
1700-1749	432	15	0	15	3.5%	0
1750-1799	571	24	1	25	4.4%	0
1800-1849	608	37	55	74	12.2%	18	24.3%
1850-1899	761	41	75	95	12.5%	21	22.1%
1900-1949	1054	46	67	96	9.1%	17	17.7%
Totals	4583	181	200	325	7.1%
Plympton St. Maurice
	Total Marriages	Widows & Widowers			% of Total Marriages % of Total	Both Parties Widowed
		Females	Males	Number		Number	% of Total
1600-1649	156	4	1	5	3.1%	0
1650-1699	299	7	0	7	2.3%	0
1700-1749	188	4	0	4	2.1%	0
1750-1799	168	9	12	18	10.7%	3	16.7%
1800-1849	170	7	20	22	12.9%	5	22.7%
1850-1899	204	19	16	26	12.8%	9	34.6%
1900-1949	305	9	9	14	4.6%	4	28.6%
Totals	1490	59	58	96	6.4%
Cornwood
	Total Marriages	Widows & Widowers			% of Total Marriages	Both Parties Widowed
		Females	Males	Total		Number	% of Total
1600-1649	No records prior to 1685
1650-1699	77	0	0	0	0.00%	0
1700-1749	166	0	0	0	0.00%	0
1750-1799	234	17	6	23	9.83%	0
1800-1849	285	13	17	22	7.72%	8	36.4%
1850-1899	316	10	12	17	5.38%	5	29.4%
1900-1949	288	8	12	13	4.51%	7	53.9%
Totals	1366	48	47	75	5.49%

One of the results of the analysis that stood out was the increase in number and percentage of remarriages over the decades, except in Cornwood parish. Also, in the early periods (17^th century) the records indicate that the preponderance of people marrying for a second time was women. By the 19^th century there were a great many more widowers than widows exchanging vows. I might have expected the reverse for the first half of the 19^th century as many men had been killed in the war with Napoleon which must have left many widows at home needing support. Interestingly, until the late 1700s there were no marriages recorded where both parties were widowed.

We know that life expectancy was not great in the 1600s and 1700s. Occasionally epidemics would sweep through parishes causing untimely deaths. It is quite conceivable that men, because of their hard physical labour may have been more apt to be killed in accidents or die at a younger age. Men were also engaged as soldiers. In times of conflict or war, more men would have died, in many cases leaving young wives and families to fend for themselves.

The substantial increase in the numbers of remarriages, in particular, the number of widowers taking a second wife, do not appear to be related to major conflicts or diseases. Families with children were the most vulnerable when one parent was lost. Both widows and widowers married very soon after the death of their spouses in order to keep a household stable. As noted before formal adoption was not recognized until the early 1900s in England but families still needed two parents to ensure economic conditions remained firm and that the needs of children were fulfilled. The second marriage created many blended families I wrote about in my January post.

Perhaps, by the 1800s, women had more ability, through at least basic education, and opportunity, in growing communities and with industrial enterprises, to find employment outside the traditional home which had for centuries centred on the work of the husband. Thus women’s need to remarry was somewhat alleviated. Men, on the other hand, especially those with young children, needed a stay-at-home wife and mother in their household and would be more likely to remarry – and quickly.

A number of second marriages were between older people, often after both of them had been widowed – probably marriages of convenience as much as economic need. This was certainly true in Cornwood parish which is mainly a farming community. Before 1800, no second marriages involved both parties being widowed. In the 20% century over half of such marriages were between widowed people – the greater majority of them over 60 years of age.

There is no ready answer for all of the numbers yet. A study of particular families involved and a review of the causes of death of the spouses would shed more light on the matter.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated