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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: jinks on Monday 01 May 06 04:50 BST (UK)

Title: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: jinks on Monday 01 May 06 04:50 BST (UK)
Whilst investigating my Family History,

I have come across the usual married young and
then have few or lots of children.

But I found my Great Grandmother quite interesting
because she was over 40 when she married and
still went on to have three children. Her husband
was younger. (A toyboy!)


I was wondering if anyone else had this occurance
in their tree?

Jinks
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: Jean McGurn on Monday 01 May 06 15:31 BST (UK)
Haven't come across any in my trees but the thought does occur regarding this day and age. There have been some reports of women having a child in their late 50's or even early 60's.

Could make the woman who adopted me when she was a 58yr old widow in 1942 look like she was my birth mother. (Haven't put myself on my tree as yet but have reason to think my birth father may be part of the family who adopted me)

Jean
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: Digger Barnes on Monday 01 May 06 17:37 BST (UK)
The oldest member of one of my ancestors was 50 when she had her last child, and she had 15 children! 

We must remember folks there was no tv then.

Yvonne
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: Comosus on Monday 01 May 06 17:45 BST (UK)
I'm not totally sure by any means but my GG Grandmother seems to have had a child in 1907 when she was 46.  It's a rare surname which came from Warwickshire/Buckinghamshire area and her husband moved up to Yorkshire.  I'll have to wait another 6 years though to see the 1911 census.

Also my GGGGG Gramdmother was about 48 when she had my GGGG Grandfather.

Andrew
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: jinks on Monday 01 May 06 17:50 BST (UK)
Why did I pose this Question?

Well I wondered when females naturally became
infertile, that sounds soo clinical, but I thought
my Ancestor was unusual but maybe not!

Jinks
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: GRACELAND on Monday 01 May 06 19:49 BST (UK)
I have A 78 year old man Married to a 40 year old Woman He out lives her To marry again  :o
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: Christopher on Tuesday 02 May 06 09:08 BST (UK)
The oldest member of one of my ancestors was 50 when she had her last child, and she had 15 children! 

We must remember folks there was no tv then.

Yvonne

There was not the traffic congestion that there is nowdays so hubby was probably able to come home at lunchtime too. I think despite all the hardship family life may have been much better in the days pre TV and computer games. In those days families created their own entertainment..in some families all age groups participated. It was not a case of everyone disappearing to their own room with their own TV and if they are lucky their own computer.

Chris.
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: acceber on Tuesday 02 May 06 11:30 BST (UK)
My GG Grandmother was 48 when she gave birth to my G-Grandmother, there was a 25 year age gap between my G Grandmother and her eldest sister. Her mother had 13 children in total all to the same marriage.

acceber
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: stevenson on Thursday 04 May 06 16:58 BST (UK)
My children's tree has a 90 year old remarrying a 30 year old and having three more children...one being another set of twins

not found his death yet to see what killed him ;D

Steve
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: Shaztoni on Thursday 04 May 06 17:07 BST (UK)
I don't think any of us could beat these:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4971930.stm

 :o :o

Sharon
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: behindthefrogs on Thursday 04 May 06 17:23 BST (UK)
The record recorded oldest mother having an entirely natural birth in this country was 55.  According to the radio which is discussing this at this very minute there were two who have achieved this.  There was one in Russia who had twins at 58.
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: Nadine Moore on Thursday 04 May 06 19:47 BST (UK)
There is a lady in Lewes, Sussex who is 62 and is expecting (although it is by IVF), she will be 63 when the baby is born.

This was on the radio today, she already has two children and went to an Italian (I think) doctor for the IVF.

She will be the oldest woman to give birth in the UK when it happens

I am 41 and the thought of having a small baby scares me to bits, I enjoy my freedom too much now.

Nadine
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: Shaztoni on Thursday 04 May 06 19:53 BST (UK)
63 and with the average life expectancy in England 80.2 for a woman, the poor child will most likely be mother less before it reaches 20  :'(

Sharon
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: Nadine Moore on Thursday 04 May 06 20:03 BST (UK)
Just found the link to the story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4971930.stm

Nadine
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: Jean McGurn on Friday 05 May 06 16:22 BST (UK)
Sharon

I know from experience what the child  of this latest mother will feel like.

When they go to school the other children will have young mums and they (the children) will ask them what it's like living with their gran and what happened to their mum.

My adoptive mother died when I was just 12 yrs old. Her husband had died two days after I was born so I never had a 'dad' or even grandparents. A thing I have always regretted even though it wasn't my fault.

The childs brothers and sisters will all be so much older than he/she will be so will be growing up with adults all around them.

Mind you on the plus side, I was adopted during the war -  most likely into a family that is connected somewhere along the line to my birth father, there is also the fact that I could quite easily have been one of those poor children who were sent to Australia and now cannot find their ancestry or even sent out to Canada on the City of Benares.

Jean

Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: JAP on Friday 05 May 06 16:52 BST (UK)
Jinks,

Of course there will always be exceptions but the generality in the 1700s and 1800s in the UK seems to be that most women had their last child at about age 42/43.  And when births occurred later, one tends to be suspicious (perhaps unfairly so) that the child was actually an illegitimate child of a daughter.

In the 1900s (and now) there were (and are) births at later ages - even as late as 50 and perhaps a very few years above.

But these current births to women in their 60s are hardly comparable - the women are apparently surrogate wombs (hormonally enhanced) carrying babies sired by their husbands who have impregnated, in vitro, a donor egg of a woman of child-bearing age.

JAP

 
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: jinks on Friday 05 May 06 18:18 BST (UK)
JAP

Thanks for you indepth reply.

I know my Great Grandmother was in her
forties when she married for the first time and
then went on to have three children.
I have found her unmarried on the census
and then 10years married with three children.
At first I thought they may have been step
children, but I also looked for the husband
he was was marrying for the first time too.

This subject as suddenly become very topical
with the Lady in her Sixties.... I believe a
young 60.... OK It may not be natural.

Any Gynaecologists on the site?

Jinks
later


Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: w105uk aka Margi :-) on Friday 05 May 06 21:15 BST (UK)
doesn't matter if physically she is a young 62! she is still going to be nly 70 when the child starts school!!

i am in 50's with grown up children and would rather look forward to grandchildren than more of my own ;D ;D
Title: Re: Oldest Female with offspring
Post by: suey on Friday 05 May 06 22:43 BST (UK)
;D
Quote
In those days families created their own entertainment..in some families all age groups participated.
;D
Oh brother! some of mine were jolly good at 'participating' if the Bastardy Bonds and Parish Records are to be believed.

I remember an elderly relative telling me that all the children were sent off to Sunday School so that their parents could have some 'time to themselves' without interruptions ;)

Suey