“…The mean ages at marriages for grooms varied mainly from 24 to 26 years, with a fall between 1840 and 1844 (23.5 years) and a high increase between 1855 and 1859 (27.4 years). It is interesting to see that the period between 1850 and 1854, which presented the highest international emigration rates (Leite, 1987(Leite, , 1994Alves, 1993Alves, , 1994Alves, , 1999Rodrigues, 1996Rodrigues, , 2005, is also the period with the largest age gap between the mean ages of brides and grooms. Another interesting feature to be highlighted is the rise in the mean age of brides between 1870 and 1874, when the brides were on average older than their husbands (26.4 and 26.0 years, respectively).…”