Thread: birth in later life

Doing my family tree and come up against some puzzling info



My grandmother (died 1996) had three brothers the youngest of which was born in 1939. The problem with this is my great-grandmother would have been 51 at the time. My father was born eight years later.



Would pregnancy at 51 in the 1930's be possible. All the time i have been doing my tree, i always think the next fact i uncover will reveal more dark and mysterious secrets. In 1939, my grandmother would have been 14 and the "Who do you think you are" side of me has concocted a notion that her "brother" could have actually been her son and my great-grandmother hid the birth and adopted the baby and registered the birth themselves.



I am sure this isnt the case but a birth at age 51 with no modern science sounds just as preposterous. Anyone have any other records on their ancestry of this being the case.

Women go through the change of life at various ages, some very young in their 30's and others late in their 50's. Change of life babies were not uncommon even in the 1930's before the advent of effective birth control. I have some in my tree that had a child in their early 50's. Unfortunately often the mothers died in childbirth as well, often along with the child.

Hello



I think you may be correct, the 'mother' is actually the grandmother. I have uncovered an instance on my tree where there is 15 years between 'siblings' it turns out that they were actually mother and son.....



Elsabels

It is possible to give birth at the age of 51. I can't see that it being so long ago would have any bearing, except that the older a mother is, the higher the risk of having a Down's Syndrome child. On the other hand, grandparents sometimes took on an illegitimate grandchild as their own, but I don't know if you would be able to prove this.