Seasonal Marriage Patterns and Adaptive Strategies: A Longitudinal Analysis of an Evangelical Reformed Community in Nineteenth-Century Zelów (Central Poland)

Abstrakt

This research examines nineteenth-century marriage seasonality in Zel & oacute;w, analyzing how socioeconomic factors and confessional identities shaped demographic patterns in this migrant community. Using 1,946 marriage records (1821-1900) from the Evangelical Reformed parish, we applied a Generalized Additive Model to account for long-term trends and occupational shifts. Results indicate significant changes around 1860, as seasonal agrarian marriage patterns were gradually superseded by non-seasonal professional ones. These findings suggest that marriage timing was a complex manifestation of the community's adaptive strategies during its transition from a mixed agrarian-weaving population to dependent home-based textile production in nineteenth-century Central Europe.