Age-Specific Features of Secondly Wedded People (on Materials of Church Searches in Left-Bank Ukraine 1836-1860)
Abstract
The paper deals with the problem of studying the age characteristics of remarried people who re-formed families. Using church records of the 1836-1860 marriage searches in eight parishes of Left-Bank Ukraine, an attempt to perform the historical and demographic analysis of age-related remarriage of both sexes in five-year age groups is made for the first time.
The research is focused on a multidisciplinary approach since methods of historical demography and gender studies are combined. Quantitative analysis is based on the processing of materials of registration sources, aimed at the calculation and systematization of numerical data of the remarried person’s age. Age characteristics are studied through the prism of comparative analysis of the information about both sexes.
Two gender-separated tables based on the studied age rates have been created. A one-third numerical advantage of remarried men (305), as opposed to women of similar marital status (191), has been found out. The youngest re-married men and women were 20 years old. The oldest was a 53-year-old widow and a widower of the age of 67. Historical and demographic analysis of remarried in five-year age groups shows the high marital activity of widows aged 20-34, and almost equal marital activity of both sexes of 40-44 age range. In the age groups of 35-39 and 45-69, the male ratio was predominant. The widows between the age of 40 and 50 showed low marital mobility. There are only single cases of women who remarried after the age of 50 when they were beyond reproductive age. Widowed women enjoyed marital demand only when they were in fertile age because they were capable of childbearing. Instead, aged widowers were in demand in the marriage market, and their wives, usually, were much younger, with the disparity in the age of 18-25 years. People older than 80, who would have violated their marriage-age requirements have not been found.
References
Arendarenko, N. (1849). Zapiski o Poltavskoi gubernіi Nikolaia Arendarenka sostavlennye v 1846 godu [Proceedings about Poltava province by Nikolai Arendarenko are made in 1846]. (Vol. 1). Poltava: V tipografіi Gubernskago Pravlenіya [in Russian].
Bardet, J. (2002). Urodzeni w kontekście płodności naturalnej. Przeszlość demograficzna Polski. Materialy i studia (Wroclaw), 23, 7-19 [in Polish].
Bilodid, I.K. (Ed.) (1973). Slovnyk ukrainskoi movy [Ukrainian Dictionary]. Vol. IV (p. 652). Kyiv: Naukova Dumka [in Ukrainian].
Borodenko, O.A. (2014). «Bozha vdova» yak relihiina model povedinky samotnoi zhinky v Hetmanshchyni. [«God’s widow» as a religon model of behavior of a lonely woman in the Hetmanship]. In: Rannomoderna Ukraina na perekhresti tsyvilizatsii, kultur, derzhav ta rehioniv = Early modern Ukraine on the cross of civilizations, cultures, states, and regions (pp. 195-203). Kyiv: Instytut istorii Ukrainy NAN Ukrainy [in Ukrainian].
Borodenko, O. (2018). Tserkovni obshuky yak istorychni dzherela u doslidzhenni shliubnoi problematyky pershoi polovyny ХІХ stolittia [Church Searches as Historical Sources in the Study of Marital Problems of the First Half of the 19th century]. Eminak, 4 (24), Vol. І, 117-121 [in Ukrainian].
Gogol, N.V. (1982). Vechera na khutore bliz Dikanki: Povesti. izdannyye Pasichnikom Rudym Pankom [Evening on a khutor near Dikanka: Narratives published by Pasichnyk Rudy Pank]. Kharkiv: Prapor [in Russian].
Górna, K. (2010). Śmierć «ze starości» – o ludziach starych i długowiecznych na podstawie wybranych metryk śląskich z XVIII i pierwszej polowy XIX wieku. Przeszlość demograficzna Polski. Materialy i studia (Wroclaw), 29, 69-98. [in Polish].
Henri, L. & Blyum, A. (1997). Metodika analiza v istoricheskoi demografii [Methods of analysis in historical demography]. Moscow: RGGU [in Russian].
Khadzhnal, D. (1979). Evropeiskii tip brachnosti v retrospektive [European type of nuptiality in retrospect]. In: Brachnost, rozhdaiemost, semia za tri veka: sbornik statei (pp. 14-71). Moscow [in Russian].
Kopczyński, M. (1996). Starość nie radość? Ludzie starzy na wsi kujawskiej schyłku XVIII stulecia. In: Zapiski historyczne. Poświęcone historii pomorza i krajów bałtyckich (pp. 45-63). Toruń [in Polish].
Kuklo, C. (2010). Gospodarstwo domowe osób starszego pokolenia w miastach na ziemiach polskich w epoce póżnofeudalnej. In: Kwartalnik historii kultury materialnej (pp. 121-133). Warszawa [in Polish].
Raizberg, B.A., Lozovskii, L.Sh. & Starodubtseva, E.B. (2012). Sovremennyi ekonomicheskii slovar [The Modern Socioeconomic Dictionary]. Moskva: OOO «NITs INFRA-M» [in Russian].
Rybakovskiy, L.L. (Ed.). (2003). Demographicheskiy poniatiynyi slovar [Demographic thesaurus]. Moscow [in Russian].
Shchelkov, K.P. (1882). Istoricheskaia Khronolohiia Kharkovskoi hubernii [Historical chronology of Kharkov region]. Kharkov [in Russian].
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
