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Just wondering.....

ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

Chris in Sussex

Chris in Sussex Report 14 Sep 2018 01:32

My Grandparents were 'almost' of different generations.

Maternal Grandparents both born 1889
Paternal Grandparents born 1908 and 1912

My cousins were born between 1935 and 1972

Anyone else have such a big (37ish year) gap between their own cousins?

Chris

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 14 Sep 2018 04:03

OH's father was an only child, and had 3 cousins.

There was 40 years between the eldest and the youngest.


My daughter isn't quite as bad as either him or you .........

....... due to the fact that my brother was more than 10 years older than me and OH's sister was 8 years younger than him, daughter has cousins ranging in age from 40 to 66.

My cousins are no longer all alive but they range from one born in 1923 (now dead) to the youngest born in 1948 (still alive) ........ about the same age range as daughter. Still can't beat you!!!

KathleenBell

KathleenBell Report 14 Sep 2018 09:02

My oldest cousin was born 1930 and the youngest in 1965.

There was a 19 year age gap between my oldest and youngest sibling.

I think in my family the war played a part as quite a few of my parents siblings had quite big gaps in the births of their children.

My mother had three children by the time she was 21 and then went 10 years before having me and then another 5 years before having my younger brother.

In years gone by women just seemed to keep producing children for most of their married lives.

EDIT - just realised that my oldest cousin was born before my youngest aunty - confuses the generations a bit :-S

Kath. x

Gwyn in Kent

Gwyn in Kent Report 14 Sep 2018 09:13

My paternal grandparents were born in 1875 and 1876. Maternal grandparents were born in 1893 and 1895.

My cousins don't have a wide age range as it seems that older aunts and uncles had children a lot later in life, so cousins were born closer together, so consequently knew each other well, even though in some cases we weren't geographically close.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth Report 15 Sep 2018 02:19

my father came from a family of 9 children , so my youngest uncle is only 5yrs older than me. We used to play together and people used laugh when I told them he was my uncle

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 15 Sep 2018 03:25

My mother's parents had 4 children between 1903 and 1925 (actually 1903, 1910, 1915, and 1925).

Mum was the eldest, married in 1928, and had my brother in 1929

Brother was only 4 years younger that his youngest uncle!

ErikaH

ErikaH Report 16 Sep 2018 22:22

My late hubby was 18 years my senior. He was the youngest of six. So, our son, 54 this year, has cousins aged 85 and 87

grannyfranny

grannyfranny Report 20 Sep 2018 23:16

My maternal grandmother was the youngest survivor of 10 children, the eldest was born in 1857 and she was born in 1876, the last child was born in 1879. Her eldest nephew was born in 1884, and her youngest child was born in 1917, so a difference of 33 years between the cousins.

Chris in Sussex

Chris in Sussex Report 22 Sep 2018 00:17

So sorry I haven't come back to this thread before but my mum, 87, has been poorly and my mind has been otherwise engaged....Thankfully she is now on the mend.

It has been interesting to see I am not alone in the age differences between cousins etc but am now left wondering if this sort of difference will be less common in the future?

My mum was the youngest of 10 and was born in 1931. 8 of her siblings survived to adulthood. Her eldest sibling was born in 1909 and his first child in 1935. So mum was a 4 year old Aunty!

Dad was the eldest of 2, he was also born in 1931. His sister was born in 1937 and had her last child in 1972.

I suppose there will always be the 'Jeremy Kyle' factor where Great Grandmother is only in her 40s :-0 but I wouldn't think the gap in years for cousins will never be as large as shown in this thread.

Maybe us posting are of a 'certain age' ;-) so more likely to have seen this happening in our own family :-D

Thanks to everyone who has posted....I find your stories truly fascinating.

Chris



SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 22 Sep 2018 00:37

I'm not sure, Chris ......................

so far my daughter's cousins, who are really in 2 groups of 3 ....... my brother's 3 daughters and OH's sister's 3 children ................ have also resulted in wide ranging age gaps for the second cousins for my daughter's son

Brother's grandchildren range in birth from 1981, 1985, and 1993

Sister-i-l's grandchildren range in birth from 2008 (2), 2010 (2), 2013 and 2015.

That gives a huge spread in our grandson's second cousins!

Our grandson was born in 2010 ................ his eldest second cousin is 37 and the youngest 3.

He also has one first cousin on his father's side who was born ca 1992/3, so is 17 years older than him

Unfortunately he really only knows the first cousin on his father's side ........

........ we introduced him to eldest 5 on OH's side at their grandmother's funeral about 4 years ago .............. he just wouldn't believe he had any more relations!

Not sure what he'll say if we ever get him to meet the eldest second cousin on my side who lives her or the other 2 who live in the UK :-D

+++DetEcTive+++

+++DetEcTive+++ Report 22 Sep 2018 18:36

My eldest cousin was born in 1930, the youngest in 1957. So ours is another family with a 37 year age gap within the ‘same’ generation.

Although we tend to have fewer children nowadays, there could still be a wide age gap between cousins. Thinking of a youngster who becomes a parent when it’s just about ‘legal’ . Their older sibling goes off to Uni, delays finding a life partner until their 30s then puts off trying to start a family until they’re established in a career. If they’re unlucky in the fertility stakes, they might even have to submit to IVF.

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 22 Sep 2018 18:58

DET

In one sense that is what happened in our family .........

......... brother 10 years older than me, married at 22, 3 children within first 6 years of marriage. Me ............. went to university, worked, didn't marry until 27, first and only child at 34.

OH 8 years older than his sister, went to university, worked, married at 29, child at 36. Sister went to college, worked, married at 25, 3 children in first 10 years.

Then the cousins repeated somewhat the same pattern, with one on each side having a first child before 26 and a third having a child in their 30s.

Our daughter was 36 when she had her first and only, thus spreading out that second generation.

So far as I know, none of children of the cousins have had children, even though the eldest is 36/37 ......... we've lost touch with my brother's middle child and thus know nothing about her son who would be in his early 30s now. It is entirely possible that he is married and had children as that was the family that converted to Judaism.

lancashireAnn

lancashireAnn Report 23 Sep 2018 15:20

I have in my tree a Henry (b1795) whose daughter married a William

William's son married Henry's brother's (b1801) youngest daughter (b1850)

It took me a while to sort that one out

Battenburg

Battenburg Report 7 Oct 2018 00:52

My grandmother was born in 1886. Her eldest sister born in 1861.The sisters first child was born in 1885.
Gran was married twice and mum was born in 1919. Mums brother was born in 1923