Biological orphanhood of minors in the longterm perspective

The data presented in this paper perfectly fit a wider discussion on the long-term evolution of the size and the structure of the family. They show that the demographic regime transformations - mainly the influence of the decrease in the death rate in the case of orphanhood - change the context of the family in which one lives and functions. The most relevant aspect of the change in question is the lengthening of the period in which one stays within a given family status, i.e. the increase in the number of years during which one is a wife/husband, a parent, a child, a grandchild, or a greatgrandchild). The change manifests through the lengthening of the period of co-existence between multiple generations of a family, and as a result, the increase in the frequency of the occurrence of multigenerational families