[LMB] Age at first marriage

[James Nicoll]

When I was trying to track down where in Germany our then-ambassador to 
Germany's family came from [1] [2], I came across old marriage and death 
records. There was this one guy who married a 12 or 13 year old. She 
showed up in the death records of the next year, died in child birth.

 	Next, he married a 13 or 14 year old. She too died in child birth.

 	He kept on marrying young girls, going up by one year per doomed 
bride until he got one old enough to survive pregnancy.

 	You have to wonder why parents would let a man who had put three 
teens into the ground marry their daughter.

1: I didn't know him but he knew my then girlfriend's boss. He asked the 
boss to look into it, he asked Jasmine, Jasmine asked me.

2: The key breakthough was "Hey, he's German so he's probably Lutheran or 
Catholic. How many churches can there be in New Hamburg from the period in 
question?" My first call to the RCs in New Hamburg got me the info I 
needed.