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Historical trends, Seasonality and Patterns of Marriages among the Roman Catholics using Parish Registers in Rural Parishes of the then Ranchi Mission

Nelson Soy, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The aim is to study the historical trends, seasonality and marriage patterns in the three rural parishes of the then Ranchi Mission from 1896-2018 amounting to 16,005 entries gathered from the parish registers. The distribution of marriages and remarriage’s were assessed year wise, along with the age at first marriages and remarriage for bride, groom, widow and widower. The decadal rhythm of marriages witnessed an upward trend in marriages, along with overall mean age at first marriage for bride and groom at 20.3, 21.6, 22.2 and 23.8, 25.3, 25.9 years, while of widows and widowers they were 26.2, 31.4, 31.4 and 27.8, 38.4, 37.3 years for Sarwada, Khunti and Torpa. Seasonality in marriages followed a similar pattern with majority of the marriages happening in January and February till 1985, whereas, post 1985, it started shifting to May and June, the religious along with cultural factors shaped the seasonality of marriages. Remarriages tend to happen more among the males as compared to the females, whereas, we have a good proportion of females remarrying at an early age. Around 10 to 12 percent of remarriages have happened in these twelve decades as of the total marriages happened in these rural parishes.

Keywords: Demography of religions , Historical demography/methods

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session P2.