Those of you who have been into genealogy for some time may already know this. Those of you who are early in your research may not realize; Warning! - This is a lot of work - a lot of time will be required. I suppose it's about how motivated you are to go back further, another generation.
Because I'm an "extreme genealogist" I frankly enjoy the challenge.
1) Do your family group sheets. Often you find the birth/ baptisms of children is what reveals a married couple.
2) On some birth records, you may notice a cross mark which indicates death and a date listed. If the date is not listed and it's a baby, then the baby probably was still born or died soon after birth.
3) Notice the pattern of children born and the age of the parents. Is there a point where a reasonably fertile youthful couple stop having children? You might make a timeline in which you figure the age of the mother at each childbirth.
4) Notice if a given name has been used in that family before. That indicates that the child in the family first given that name has died, and so the name is being used again. (This ties into a religious belief that God is giving a replacement child and blessing the couple. So many babies and children died without becoming adults before vaccinations, I often truly wonder how people could emotionally handle so much death. Since it was happening all around them, though, they had the experience of "this is how life is.")
5) The remarriage of a man or woman almost always indicates the death of a spouse in those days before divorce, so the records may state that they had a previous marriage, that they are a widow or widower, and might mention the woman's previous married surname. (Don't be shocked if the remarriage comes soon after the death. People were pragmatic and work was gender-based. Pressure was on to remarry.) Until you find a definite date, you would note "death previous" to the marriage date on your research.
5) Informal adoption : Notes may also indicate that a child's parent died. Sometimes you will notice on a marriage record that a mention has been made of a former parent's surname. Because adoption for common children was so informal, it could be that they went to live with relatives, or they may have started working to support themselves very young... This may be revealed also by doing a "house number"/ farmstead study, seeing who is living at the address and when.
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