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

This research examines nineteenth-century marriage seasonality in Zelów, 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 Results indicate significant changes around 1860, as seasonal agrarian marriage patterns were gradually superseded by non-seasonal professional ones.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.