Really big age gap, or...?

[Colin McEvoy]

Hello. I've been adding family members from a family tree to my Ancestry tree, and I just got to this person (Osmund Mikkelson), my 5th great-grandfather...

 

https://www.helgeland.nu/English/english-pub/i13685.html#i88860

 

As you can see, it appears he had three wives. Osmund was born in 1722, and the first wife listed on this page (from a marriage in 1740) is stated to have been born around 1670. If this is accurate, she was 70 years old when they got married, and Osmund was 18.

 

This is obviously a huge age difference and it seems to me this is probably an error. The site includes citations and sources, but I don't have access to them myself; I think some of them might be accessible with a Norwegian IP address, which I don't have. Would anyone be able to double-check these sources for me and see if the birth year is incorrect or if anything else is noted about this marriage?

 

Thanks!

[Kristian Hunskaar (privat)]

7 timer siden, Colin McEvoy skrev:

This is obviously a huge age difference and it seems to me this is probably an error. The site includes citations and sources, but I don't have access to them myself; I think some of them might be accessible with a Norwegian IP address, which I don't have. Would anyone be able to double-check these sources for me and see if the birth year is incorrect or if anything else is noted about this marriage?

 

It's a big age difference, but it could be correct. Some young men chose to marry old widows in order to secure a way of living, i.e. have a farm to run. When these elderly women died, the young men could marry younger women.