Family Composition and Remarriage in Alsace, 1750–1850

Data from a family reconstitution study of five villages in Alsace, France, point to the importance of family composition as a determinant of remarriage. For widows and widowers, the likelihood of remarriage increased with the number of children fourteen years of age or younger in their household, though the result was statistically significant only for men. Moreover, having an older daughter (fifteen to twenty-one years of age) was associated with a much lower likelihood of remarriage for widowers, and, surprisingly, for widows as well.