Editor's Note: This is part of a series based on the book Producing a Quality Family History, by Patricia Law Hatcher. The first segment in the series contained groups of questions you may ask as you prepare your family history. The Daily News periodically picks a group of questions and guides you to some resources that can help you answer these questions as they pertain to your ancestors' lives. Today's installment will address the context of family.

What was the average size of a family in this time and place? How far apart were the children spaced? What was the usual age at first marriage for a man, a woman? What was the child mortality rate? What was the average life span? How did your ancestor's family compare to the norm?

Were the elderly typically a part of the family? What roles did they play? What were the procedures involved in getting married? Did the couple live with the parents at first?

Why did the mother and father choose the names for the children that they did? Were they family names or names that were popular at the time? Were they Biblical names? Did they give middle names? Were nicknames routinely used?

Family Statistics
Average family size, spacing of children, mortality rates, and average life span, can be found in census records. Study the families around your ancestors. Census records can also reveal elderly family members or other relatives that lives with your ancestor's family.

Mortality schedules are another good source of information. The following is excerpted from The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, edited by Loretto D. Szucs and Sandra H. Luebking, Chapter 5, "Research in Census Records," by Loretto D. Szucs.

Mortality Schedules, 1850-1885
The 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1885 censuses included inquiries about persons who had died in the twelve months immediately preceding the enumeration. Mortality schedules list deaths from 1 June through 31 May of 1849-50, 1859-60, 1869-70, 1879-80, and 1884-85. They provide nationwide, state-by-state death registers that predate the recording of vital statistics in most states. While deaths are under-reported, the mortality schedules remain an invaluable source of information.

Mortality schedules asked for the deceased's name, sex, age, color (white, black, mulatto), whether widowed, place of birth (state, territory, or country), month in which the death occurred, profession/occupation/trade, disease or cause of death, and number of days ill. In 1870, 'parents' birthplaces' was added. In 1880, the place where a disease was contracted and how long the deceased person was a citizen or resident of the area were included (fractions mean months when less than one year).

Before the National Archives was established in 1934, the federal government offered the manuscripts of the mortality schedules to the respective states. Those schedules not accepted by the states were given to the National Library of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Copies, indexes, and printed schedules are also available in many libraries

Colonial Naming Customs
http://www.intersurf.com/~rcollins/names.html

Naming Patterns—18th & 19th Century Britain
http://ourheritage.tierranet.com/naming-patterns.html

Norwegian Naming Patterns
http://www.nndata.no/home/jborgos/names.htm

Scottish Naming Patterns
http://www.gillean.com/Roots/scotname.htm

Scottish Surnames and Naming Patterns
http://www.ednet.co.uk/~jeanmoore/names.html

18th Century Pennsylvania German Naming Customs
http://www.kerchner.com/germname.htm

Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewish Naming Patterns
(From The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, edited by Loretto D. Szucs and Sandra H. Luebking, Chapter 17, "Tracking Jewish-American Family History," by Gary Mokotoff

A cultural factor of interest to genealogists is the way children of Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews acquire given names. Ashkenazic Jews normally name their children after deceased relatives—quite often recently deceased relatives. This rule is often the first clue as to the names of ancestors for whom there is no documentation. For example, if several male children within an extended family born in the same year were given the name Abraham, it usually shows that some common relative with the given name Abraham died shortly before the birth of the children. Two Ashkenazic Jewish genealogists who suspect they might be related will often go through the ritual of comparing given names in their families, looking for a pattern of similar given names.

Unfortunately, this naming practice has declined drastically in recent years. Israelis of Ashkenazic descent have virtually abandoned the practice, and it is becoming less common among Ashkenazic Jews in the Diaspora. But for persons who were born before 1950, these naming rules usually apply.

Sephardic Jews who follow the tradition name their children according to the following pattern: the firstborn son is named after the father's father; the firstborn daughter is named after the mother's mother; second son after the mother's father; and the second daughter after the father's mother.

See the entire series:
Part 1: Turning Paper into People
Part 2: Historical Context
Part 3: Clothing and Food
Part 4: Migration
Part 5: Land
Part 6: Ethnicity
Part 7: Housing
Part 8: Community
Part 9: Environment
Part 10: Family