Suchergebnisse

Marriage patterns of California's eighteenth and nineteenth century
Spanish-Mexican families are analysed using data from genealogies and mission
records. A shortage of women among the military based colonists led to an
unusual marriage pattern with a large age differential between husbands and
wives. The average age at marriage was 18·4 years for women and 28·4 years for
men. Spatial mobility was high for both sexes, particularly for men. More
husbands than wives were born in Mexico. The Monterey presidial district of
central California was the birthplace of a disproportionate number of husbands
and the southern California districts were a source of wives. The transition
between a founding population predominantly composed of Mexican immigrants and
a population of native-born Californians
occurred at the beginning of the
nineteenth century.