Always put the births of children in the chronology of their parents’ lives. Were the parents a “usual” age when they started having children? There are several reasons why a person can wait to get married, but an age that is slightly older could mean there was a previous marriage–perhaps that resulted in no children.
Or it could just mean that they waited until they found the right person. The ages on this passenger list are correct and suggest the mother was around 31 when the daughter was born and that the father was around 37. 
5 Responses
Can we assume you have proof that this was a first child? There could have been previous pregnancies. There could be older children who did not travel with them.
It’s possible there were previous pregnancies. There was a daughter a year and a half or two years older than the one shown in this manifest entry, but that’s it for the ones who survived to immigrate. It’s very possible there were pregnancies that did not come to term or were earlier children who all died early. I won’t have a better idea until I get the marriage date.
Sometimes the man could have been away doing military service and got married later.
This is true.
My parents married fairly late. I was told that Dad “couldn’t” marry until he had saved up a nest-egg that would be sufficient for emergencies (which meant a healthy sum to him). Having known him for 41 years,
I have no trouble at all thinking that it was true. I don’t remember him saying so, but I would make a bet
that it also was caused by Dad being unwilling to leave his parents and brother “in the lurch” as far as having enough hands to work two farms…His parents, dad, and his brother all worked together until all but dad had passed away.
Thus dad was 37 and mom was 31 when they married. There were no other marriages involved.