History and Genealogy

I've invested a lot of time researching and recording my genealogy. With my background as a failed historian, it prompts some reflections on history, as reflected in the genealogical record.

The most striking lesson is from the Rippey genealogy, Captain John and Mary had 13 children, all of whom reached adulthood and had children of their own. This could be chance. Many family trees probably have an especially prolific family somewhere.

It could reflect the prosperous conditions in the York PA region for farmers. There's research here and here on the comparative health of disparate populations in time and space which shows colonial PA was a healthy area--the "Best Poor Man's Country" as one letter put it and a historian used for his book title.

But it contrasts with the record of their descendants. The average family size declines. That's to be expected, as it becomes harder for parents to establish their children on farms, and as prosperity decreases the need for multiple children to have one or more living in the parent's old age.

And children start dying, dying early and often. Some families seem jinxed, with 2, 3 or 4 children dying before their teen years.