tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5022318990784415929.post7222562541458795726..comments2023-10-20T11:17:47.246-04:00Comments on Two Nerdy History Girls: Mourning in the 1880s: U.S. vs Great BritainUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5022318990784415929.post-3019361303667156502017-05-10T16:08:33.447-04:002017-05-10T16:08:33.447-04:00In the times of settlement in the western united s...In the times of settlement in the western united states some women got remarried right after their husbands funeral. Word gets around fast and if there is a widower who needs someone to raise his kids and keep house a widow was fair game. More men then women out there hence the mail order bride business was boomingGailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13620626011234510409noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5022318990784415929.post-11024483378217627202017-05-09T19:29:29.317-04:002017-05-09T19:29:29.317-04:00In working on my Danish family history, I found th...In working on my Danish family history, I found that it was common for people to remarry shortly after a spouse had died. It really took two adults to manage a family group financially. Not that the woman worked "outside the home," but the care of the kids, the farm chores, etc.<br /><br />I had one ancestor who lost four wives to childbirth. Three of the kids survived. After the fourth wife's death, he seems to have given up marrying, but I was happy to find the family later together - He was working as a farm hand on a large farm, as was one of the boys. The other boy was a lodger there and the daughter had gone into service in her midteens, as was usual.<br /><br />Four wives dying in childbirth, my guess is there was a terribly midwife there.Karen Annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13306986336556283751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5022318990784415929.post-30158545216995779902017-05-09T00:00:03.686-04:002017-05-09T00:00:03.686-04:00I wish I could remember where I read this but in I...I wish I could remember where I read this but in India at least in Victoria's era, wives of service men could not go into mourning at all, really. There was a story of a widow walking back to the base with her friends and one of the other officers asks her to marry him. She bursts into tears - she had already been asked, and accepted, from a man who wasn't as well off as the man who'd just asked her. How common this might be, I'm not sure, but given the precarious nature of life in India, especially for the rank and file, maybe not so uncommon as all that. Of course, everyone in the regiment knows everyone else - probably entirely too well in some ways.<br /><br />A lot of these mourning conventions may be a way of showing off wealth - after all, a woman who can 'go into mourning' for a couple of years, forgoing the financial support of a husband, is well off. Could 'the lower classes' afford that? I have a feeling the answer is 'not really'. Elena Jardinizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18335079548380273268noreply@blogger.com