A cousin of mine widowed at a very young age. Her children are now grown. The gentleman she has been with for the past fourteen years had asked her once again to marry him. He not only loves her but would like her taken care of if anything were to happen to him.
This leads me to some of my ancestors. Families 150 to 200 years ago were very large. I would love to believe they took their Bible seriously and went forth and multiplied. I'm sure some did, but more did not. A couple may have had six to eight children with the intention of rearing farmhands. Don't look so shocked. Life expectancy was much younger. Boys were expected to follow in their father's footsteps; girls to marry and raise large families. A husband would die in a farming accident, a woman in childbirth; leaving the surviving spouse with a brood of children to raise. The widow or widower would remarry a widower or widow combining the two families. As you can imagine, families then could have sixteen children.
This has happened more than once during my family history. If fact, my seventh great-grandfather, Captain Thomas Taber married his second wife, Mary Tomson, he built a second home to hold his, hers and theirs! Remarrying was a practical solution to single parenthood.
My cousin and her new husband certainly are not merging a family this large but with two little words, she has become a grandmother.
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