Saturday night continues to roll around at an alarming speed – I can’t believe Thanksgiving is just a few days away –  and Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has posted this week’s challenge:

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1)  Thinking about your direct ancestors back through 2nd great-grandparents – in other words, ancestors #2 to #31 on your pedigree chart – how many children did they have?  How many lived long enough to marry?  How many died before age 10?

My family is quite small:

#2-3: George Michael Sabo (1926-1985) & Doris Priscilla Adams (1923-2008) – 1 son & 1 daughter (1 married & 1 unmarried), 0 died before age 10

#4-5 George Kucharik aka Sabo (1893-1936) & Julia Anne Scerbak (1893-1985) – 1 son (1 married), 0 died before age 10

#6-7 Vernon Tarbox Adams (1899-1968) & Hazel Ethel Coleman (1901-1995) – 3 daughters (2 married & 1 unmarried), 0 died before age 10

#8-9 Stephen Kucharik (1855-1933) & Maria Kacsenyak (1859-1926) – 3 sons & 3 daughters & 3 infants (4 married), 4 died before age 10

#10-11 Michael Scerbak (1868-1932) & Anna Murcko (1872-1967) – 2 daughters & 4 sons & 1 infant (5 married), 2 died before age 10

#12-13 Charles Edwin Adams (1877-1922) & Annie Maude Stuart (1874-1940) – 1 son (1 married), 0 died before age 10

#14-15 Hartwell Thomas Coleman (1869-1938) & Anna Elisabeth Jensen (1872-1916) – 1 son & 1 daughter (2 married), 0 died before age 10

#16-17 John Kucharik aka Tomko (1820-1893) & Maria Repka (1829-1896) – 5 sons & 3 daughters (2 married), 6 died before age 10

#18-19 Michael Kacsenyak (1834-1899+) & Anna Haluska (1832-1899+) – 7 daughters & 2 sons (2 married), 7 died before aged 10

#20-21 John Scerbak (1836-1916) & Maria Patorai (1839-1912) – 4 sons & 4 daughters (3 married), 5 died before age 10

#22-23 John Murcko (1831-1917) & Maria Szova (1845-1925) – 1 son & 5 daughters (4 married), 2 died before age 10

#24-25 Calvin Segee Adams (1843-1921) & Nellie F. Tarbox (1856-1927) – 1 son & 1 daughter (2 married), 0 died before age 10

#26-27 Charles Augustus Stewart & Elida Ann Hicks (1833-1914) – 4 sons & 4 daughters (5 married), 3 died before age 10

#28-29 William Coleman (1834-1904) & Sarah Moriah Crouse (1833-1930) – 4 sons & 2 daughters (4 married), 2 died before age 10

#30-31 Frits Wille Oscar Emil Jensen (1845-1920) & Margaret Bruun (1845-1890) – 1 son & 4 daughters (1 married & 1 unmarried), 3 died before age 10

This is a very visual representation of the sky high infant mortality rate in Europe in the 1800s. The statistic that jumped out at me was the child mortality rate. Look at the number of children who died before age 10 in Slovakia (#16-23) and #30-31, who lived in Denmark.

Those five couples gave birth to 36 children and 23 of them died as young children. That is a 66% mortality rate. How terrible it must have been for them, welcoming so many children and then having to bury them so soon.

Thanks, Randy, for a different challenge this week. It was an eye-opening experience.