Oct. 5, 1927: Most Alberta couples exchanged ‘I dos’ in Edmonton in 1926
Mark Hooks and Gwen Day were married at Shiloh Baptist Church in Edmonton in the 1920s.
Photograph by: Ryan Jackson , Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal
There were some interesting birth, death and marriage statistics released by the province for 1926.
For example, there were 102 brides 16 years of age and younger. At the other end of the age scale, 11 grooms and two brides were over 70. In between, 1,080 brides were between 17 and 19 years old; 1,842 were between 20 and 24; and 17 brides and 45 grooms were over 60.
Most of the 4,498 couples who got married — 1,093 — exchanged their vows in Edmonton, followed by 1,004 in Calgary; 194 in Lethbridge; and 115 in Medicine Hat.
One hundred-fifty-four couples called it quits: 79 divorces were granted at the husbands’ requests; 75 were initiated by wives. That was 58 more divorces than in 1925 and 49 more than the preceding five-year average.
Births totalled 14,455, or 559 less than the previous year. Nevertheless, Alberta’s birth rate of 23.9 per 1,000 population equalled that of the United States, and was higher than all other countries except Canada’s at 25 per 1,000.
Most Alberta babies — 1,858 — were born in Edmonton, followed by 1,567 in Calgary.
There were 280 multiple births involving twins or triplets.
The main cause of death 87 years ago, as it is today, was heart disease, accounting for 10 per cent of the total 5,156 deaths recorded. Violent deaths numbered 346, or 7.18 per cent.