Does Distance Make the Heart Grow Fonder?

Family History
31 January 2018
by Ancestry®

Technology has made it easier than ever for us to find our soulmate across the country, or even across the world.

But are couples today born farther away from each other than couples of yesteryear?

Ancestry combed through the data of almost 22 million couples and over 770,000 public family trees to find out.

Here’s what we discovered: There has been a trend of couples’ birth locations becoming farther apart over the last few generations.

Chart showing increase in miles over 100 years.
Could distance really make the heart grow fonder?

Urbanization

Narrow street in urban setting.

Since the Industrial Revolution, America has watched its population shift from rural to urban. By the 1920s, the scales had tipped in favor of more citizens living in urban than rural areas.

While city dwellers still married people who lived nearby, their neighbors and coworkers were drawn from disparate populations and places. 

The growth of America’s industrial cities could help explain the steady rise in distance between couple’s birth locations throughout the 1800s.

Transportation

Steam locomotive train.

In 1800, most Americans still lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic coast. Roads were bad or nonexistent. Ethnic enclaves were common in both rural and urban areas.

As travel became easier in the U.S., the rise in marriage distance rose steadily. In the 1830s, travel by passenger train began catching on. Steamships made both river trips and ocean travel continuously easier throughout the 1800s.

In the 1900s, it was air travel that had a significant impact. By the end of the 1950s, the era of mass air travel was in full swing.

Technology 

Three rotary phones on wall.

Previously a semester abroad where you met your soulmate meant you went back home and had to communicate via post.

Letters could take weeks. And a trip across the Atlantic even by the early 1900s took a week.

Nowadays, you can meet in one country, both live in different countries, and still stay closely connected.

Is your family part of the trend of greater distances in couples’ birth cities?

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