<p>We were watching a program about polygamy and America. We wondered, what happened to all the young men that had no one to marry if many of the females married one guy?</p>
<p>And have studies ever been done regarding the genetic issues possibly involved?</p>
<p>I am not trying to start a religious debate, but am actually curious about those boys, when you see pictures, you see lots of girls and women, but few, if any teen boys</p>
<p>It is like a dirty little secret where those boys went</p>
<p>What makes you think we know the answer? 
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<p><a href=“Note:%20The%20FLDS%20church%20is%20not%20affiliated%20with%20The%20Church%20of%20Jesus%20Christ%20of%20Latter-day%20Saints,%20from%20which%20it%20splintered%20around%201890.%5B2%5D”>quote</a>
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<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Boys_of_Polygamy[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Boys_of_Polygamy</a></p>
<p>because this is a smart group, generally, and I am sure someone has a some information</p>
<p>Tanks coronax, it is interesting that there is so little about this in the history books</p>
<p>but what about the real surge of mormans, before the split…where did they go?</p>
<p>I saw a show on polygamy on TV (Dateline maybe?) and they said that sometimes the leaders in the community (not Mormons but these cult-y polygamists) run off the boys because they don’t want competition for the girls/women. They interviewed several of these boys who were living in nearby city areas who said they were basically told to get lost. It was horrible! It think the place profiled was ?? Colorado City (not in Colorado, ironically) or something like that.</p>
<p>OK, so now I read the link that coronax2 put up and that’s exactly what the TV show I saw said. (and Colorado City, AZ)</p>
<p>Always try wiki first, cgm–and if that fails, try cc. 
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<p>Better yet: learn your way around an expanded google search. </p>
<p>If all else fails–there’s always the library.</p>
<p>THere isn’t much about this HH, as you can see…imagine that</p>
<p>I did google, but “lost boy” was a term I hadn’t heard of before, so this leads me into another direction</p>
<p>does this topic annoy you HH?</p>
<p>And while I love Wiki, I also always try several sources, but thought in areas of American History and such, the CC users are pretty smart and often have information that is not widely known</p>
<p>I don’t know that the “lost Mormon boys” from 1848-1890 have ever come up for discussion (the time frame of the Mormons going to Utah to the official repeal of polygamy by the Mormon church). During this same time, a lot of Mormons from Europe were immigrating to Utah…a number of them were young women. Plus, with their continued missionary work, more people were added. The society continued to grow quickly.</p>
<p>The FLDS communities are closed, secretive communities that don’t grow rapidly. Young men could become a real problem.</p>
<p>But they had sons, at least 1/2, so what happened in America back in the 1800 to those men? Its just a curiousity to me, a kind of chapter that is ignored</p>
<p>We all recognize the Church of LDS vehemently opposes polygamy and I don’t think anyone here confuses the Mormon Church with splinter fundamentalist groups who do observe polygamy…so why shouldn’t this be discussed? What happens to young girls who are forced to take husbands and the teenage boys who are cast out of their communities is a terrible social issue which should be of concern to us all.</p>
<p>cgm…here is an interesting site…</p>
<p><a href=“http://helpthechildbrides.com/[/url]”>http://helpthechildbrides.com/</a></p>
<p>Btw…this is a bit of a hot topic here in Texas, since it appears Warren Jeffs cult has undergone a major relocation to Eldorado, west of San Antonio. The land purchases were made under false pretenses which doesn’t make one feel very comfortable about motives. We’ve got a whole new spate of laws aimed at hindering their activities… prohibiting step-father marriages, raising the marriage age, etc… Many think it’s too late…the groundwork for another Waco has been laid.</p>
<p>There was an article in people magazine( a few years back), the boys had to run away because they were competing with the leader of the cult for these young girls. Many of them don’t have any other relatives else where but had to run away.</p>
<p>I don’t know that throughout the history of the church of LDS that the problem was so pronounced as it is in this excommunicated group. In the past men may have waited longer to marry. There are lots of societies throughout history and the world that have displayed some degree of polygamy but what’s going on with the FLDS church is pretty intense. I am talking two or three wives as opposed to twice that. So the problem would be more pronounced.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure that would have helped, since on the American frontier, men tended to live a lot longer than women did. Even a monogamous man might have 2-3 wives over the course of his life. And Joseph Smith etal, were marrying very young women; one of his wives was 14 and given to him by the woman’s father as a sign of devotion. (At that time in American history, most women married between age 19-23, and menarche was usually not till after 16 years of age).</p>
<p>And there’s not much sign that the LDS men lost interest in acquiring wives as they got older, so that if a young fella just waited patiently, he’d get his turn. Bringham Young had 52 wives, married between 1824-1872. One of the last of his wives was more than 40 years his junior.</p>
<p>Interesting question, CGM. I had never considered it.</p>
<p>CGM said “Mormons” not the FDLS. Actually there is a lot of information about the difference between the two available, including the book Under the Banner of Heaven.</p>
<p>Typically original posts on cc such as this tend to morph into religion-bashing-fests.</p>
<p>CGM, you asked about hereditary diseases. Among the ones Mormon’s are more suspectible than the general public is: Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia. The “hierarchy children”, descendents of the polygamous Mormon families of the 1800s are also more prone to a fatal disease called Alport’s syndrome (a form of nephritis that kills young men). </p>
<p>Mormons tend to live longer than the average American, but that seems to be due more to lifestyle than genetics.</p>
<p>Maybe the population was growing faster than the old coots could marry young girls…Brigham Young may have been one of the few who could AFFORD to marry that many wives. It’s not by chance that many of the families of present day polygamists are often sucking on the public assistance teat.</p>
<p>That whole Warren Jeffs thing gives me the creeps…</p>
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<p>Money is part of it, but another big part of it is draining “The Beast” (that’s the rest of us) financially.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure the economy worked like that in the 1800s. Weren’t most of the LDS farm families back then? Kids and wives do valuable work on farms that results in income as well as adding value to assets; it’s not like the 1950’s era nuclear family stereotype with a sole breadwinner responsible for the support of everyone else.</p>