Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.32728/h2025.01
The Ages of Newlyweds in the Parish of Roč, 1651–1800
Zdenko Balog
Sažetak
This article analyses the age of newlyweds in the parish of Roč between 1651 and 1800 as a sociological phenomenon. During this period, more than a thousand marriages were contracted in the parish. It was found that men entered their first marriage at an average age of 27.78 years, while women did so at 24.64 years. A breakdown by age groups revealed a preferred age of entry into marriage similar to that found in neighbouring communities of Venetian Istria, and that the high average was the result of a significant number of brides and grooms aged over 30, and even over 35, in both sexes. Thus, more than 28% of men and over 11% of women entered their first marriage at the age of 30 or later. Various factors were examined, including illegitimate children and premarital sexual relations, widowed remarriages, exogamy, and marriages between relatives contracted with dispensation. Although all of these factors show a certain correlation with the age of newlyweds, the correlation is too weak to explain why the age at marriage in Roč was higher than, for example, in Pula or Poreč. Moreover, this correlation is reciprocal, meaning that the frequency of illegitimate children and premarital conceptions was more a consequence of delayed marriage than its cause. The true reason for the emergence of the group of newlyweds aged 30 and over, i.e. delayed marriage, lies in family structure, specifically in the cycle of the socalled “stem family”. This refers to a nuclear family (parents + unmarried children) in which children marry outside the parental household, while one or two unmarried “heirs” remain at home. Only on their parentsʼ deathbed, or after their death, could these heirs marry and assume control of the household. However, only one of them was allowed to do so. A recurring pattern can be observed of children marrying while the father lay on his deathbed. If the parents died earlier, the “heirs” could marry freely in their late twenties; however, if one of the parents lived to an advanced old age, it sometimes happened not only that one of the “heirs” unnaturally postponed marriage, but that they never managed to marry at all.
Ključne riječi
Istria; Roč; Early Modern period; stem family; age of newlyweds
Hrčak ID:
349938
URI
Datum izdavanja:
29.7.2026.
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