Rooting for Ancestors: September 2020

My third-great-aunt, Louisa Salyers, married at age 12.75 in 1847, had a baby son at age 14.5, and died at age 14.75. Her husband was only 19 when they married, so at least he wasn't an old lecher, but obviously, such an early marriage and childbirth didn't go well for the girl. The husband remarried, had more children, and died at age 50. The baby lived to 76 years old.

Woman holding dead baby, 1850s.
Photo: Evergreen College

I have no idea why Louisa Salyers married so very early. You can't tell by census records because they listed the male head of household by name, and then females or males of certain age ranges, but not by name. This was Ripley County, Indiana, and they were very poor farmers. From records I found, Louisa married on 4 July 1847, had her baby 6 April 1849, and died four months later. Is it possible that she was pregnant when she married, lost that pregnancy, then became pregnant with her son James? We may never know.

Negative implications surrounding teen pregnancies are a relatively new concept. Women in the 1800s were expected to marry early in life with many being married before the age of 20. Early marriage was not only expected, but necessary. Life spans were significantly smaller in the 1800s and the sole reason for women was to procreate and support the men in their lives. In 1800 the average household consisted of seven children. https://www.babymed.com/blogs/summer-banks/has-teen-pregnancy-always-been-taboo

Louisa's older sister, Leticia Salyers, got married at 16 and had her first child at 19. She gave birth 15 times.

Leticia Salyers Edens was the
sister of my ancestor.

Louisa's and Leticia's younger sister, my great-great-grandmother Harriet Salyers Swinney (grandmother of Opal Carter Robinson), got married at 22 and had her first child at 23, who was my great-grandmother.

The Salyers sisters were part of a family of thirteen siblings. In the 19th century they had so many children that they only had a few years of formal education, and the audit of their goods when they died showed not enough plates or chairs as they had mouths to feed.

Harriet Salyers, my great-great-grandmother, was lucky to marry into a slightly more prosperous Seventh-day Baptist family. Her husband was Daniel Webster Swinney and they had five children.

Harriet Olive Salyers Swinney was my direct ancestor.

Recently, on one of my genealogy/DNA sites, I connected with a descendant of Louisa Salyers McIntire. The site estimates us as third cousins, perhaps because we have more than one ancestor in common, but the way I figure it through the Salyers sisters, we're fourth cousins twice removed.

This screenshot is set to my ancestor Harriet, but the ancestors for the Salyers sisters would be the same, of course.