ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the evidence and mechanisms by which the painful consequences of cases of divorce, domestic violence, cohabitation and the role of women as workers and mothers get transmitted across generations. I explore the family size and the health and wellbeing of women, men and children particularly in the 19th century and discuss the relevance of these family experiences to expectations of subsequent family relationships. Gender, class and ethnicity are particularly important in this section of the book and the detailed examples include real accounts of members of my own diverse family tree although names are generally anonymized with noted exceptions of well-known individuals all of whom are now dead.
