How to find the brothers and sisters of your ancestors?
The basis of genealogy consists in looking for its direct ancestors. Okay - But how do you find a siblings?
Because, you will see it in this article, they can be very useful to guide you in your research and help you learn more about your family.
Find siblings in the archives
If your ancestors are in different archive sources, their brothers and sisters will certainly also be. Here is a non -exhaustive list of some registers to consult to find all the children of a couple:
The family booklet : Better source to find a whole siblings, but you still have to have it under the elbow ...
Population censuses : These population lists, by commune, identify all people living under the same roof. It is an interesting source to find a siblings, but beware, sometimes the big children have left the home for work where they settled elsewhere, so they are no longer as a resident in the same home. Also, and to make sure you find all the children, you will have to peel the censuses over several years (the censuses took place every 5 years approximately).
Remember that you need to know the town, or even the name of the street or the place, to save time in your research.
Decennial tables : These tables established every 10 years identify all births, marriages and deaths in the town. By looking for the births of children with the same patronym, you are likely to come across members of the same family. This information remains to be checked, of course! In addition, this resource does not take into account the possible changes in commune. If your ancestors have moved, you will lose their trace in the registers of the town of origin.
Tables of the registers: Again, the principle of tables can be interesting to give you research tracks on children, only boys, bearing the same family name. You can check their parenting links (if they have the same parents) directly in the registers.
Parish or civil status registers: The acts of births/baptisms, marriages and deaths/burials are always avenues to follow in search of information on the family nucleus. Indeed, brothers and sisters can appear as witnesses or godparents. In addition, these acts will guide you in search of the rest of the family in the surrounding municipalities.
Succession declarations : Available in notarial archives (not always on departmental archive sites), these declarations are interesting because they allow to realize who are the heirs (often the children of the person). But, again, this source may not be exhaustive.
💡 Le saviez-vous ?
According to the study “The French population in the 17th century”, the fertility of women of the time suffered the country's religious, economic and social conditions. Indeed, marriage has long played a preponderant role in their fertility since it marks the beginning, but also the end to the death of the spouse (excluding re-mariage).
Biologically speaking, female fertility “then stopped around 41 years” (between 38 and 45 years on average).
Still according to this study, the birth of the first child arrived 16 months after marriage. The others "follow about 29 months apart".
The author estimates the average of births around 4.85 per woman.
This fertility indicator will only drop, in the 19th century, from 4,41 in 1800 to 2.88 in 1899 according to Max Roser and Hans Rosling.
You will understand, what matters above all is to consult the maximum of possible archive sources so that you can then cross the information and make sure you have found all the members of the same siblings.
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