At the same time both qualitative and quantitative studies show a steady trend of gradual increase in the marriageable age and age at first child birth among Roma, and today most of the Romani females get married after reaching the lawful age of 18.
One of the most important ways of doing that is through marriage. In Romania, it's illegal for underage minors to wed. But Roma gypsy communities continue to hold unofficial wedding ceremonies for children as young as 13.
As can be seen in all Gypsies of the world, Gypsies in Turkey usually marry their relatives at a young age since marrying a non-Gypsy means automatic extradition from the Gypsy community (Sutherland, 1990). Therefore, they believe that they can protect their communal life through endogamy.
Unmarried young men and women are not allowed to socialize alone together because of the emphasis on female chastity. Couples marry young - girls at around 16 or 17, and boys between 18 and 19. They're not supposed to marry non-travellers but marriage to second cousins in families is common.
The Girl Who Married a Gypsy | Big Fat Gypsy Weddings
How do Travellers treat their wives?
Domestic Violence
Research shows that domestic abuse is a significant health issue for the Gypsy & Traveller community. A recent study estimated that between 60% – 80% of women from travelling communities experience domestic abuse during their lives, compared to 25% of the female population generally.
You may have Romani, Traveller or Gypsy ancestry if your family tree includes common Romani or Gypsy surnames such as Boss, Boswell, Buckland, Chilcott, Codona, Cooper, Doe, Lee, Gray/Grey, Harrison, Hearn, Heron, Hodgkins, Holland, Lee, Lovell, Loveridge, Royles/Ryalls, Scamp, Smith, Stevens/Stephens, Wood and Young.
Even more devastating is the fact that 16% of Roma girls get married before 15 and 5% give birth at the same age (Antonijević, 2023). Looking at Bosnia and Herzegovina, five out of ten Roma girls and two out of ten Roma boys enter marriage before the age of 18 (Beker, 2019).
The Gypsy and Traveller community firmly believe that “marriage is for life” and divorce is rare. Older children may be particularly reluctant to leave permanently.
The bride and groom arrive separately at the church; after they have been "crowned," they travel together to the reception. There they kneel, holding icons while elders bless them with bread and salt. In some weddings, a procession circles the bride, who carries a staff.
Danielle Maughan, who has appeared in C4's My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, was one day past her 16th birthday when she married 21-year-old Brendan Joyce in Corby, Northhants, this weekend.
Some of the better known areas of work that Gypsies and Travellers are involved in include seasonal agricultural work, motor trading and tree-felling. Some are employed as academics, teachers and public servants and in this way they add to the local economy.
Gypsy courtship and weddings were once very different from our own. A typical Gypsy proposal method was the giving of a coloured handkerchief. If worn by the lady the gentleman knew he was accepted.
But a 2008 Romanian report says that 55 percent of Gypsies had their first pregnancy while under 18 compared to 14 percent of non-Gypsy Romanians. Recent reports of a Roma girl who gave birth in Spain at age 10 may have been overblown — with neighbors from her Romanian community saying she was at least 13.
According to the Buzzfeed article upon which The Act is based, on Gypsy's 18th birthday her father called to say "hello." Dee Dee told him not to tell Gypsy how old she was, because supposedly Gypsy thought she was still 14.
Today, it is relatively common for Gypsy/Travellers give birth in hospitals; however, many do not attend ante-natal and post -natal care due to the perceived negative attitude of health care professionals and mothers from the settled community. As a birth is celebrated by the whole community, so is a death mourned.
There is no king or queen. Traveller families often have someone that makes the main decisions that will affect the family as a whole, and is usually a patriarch or matriarch of the family. This is often the same for Romany people, who have no tradition of royalty.
If a Gypsy male marries a non-gypsy female, his community may eventually accept her, provided that she adopts the Gypsy way of life. But it is a worse violation of the marime' code for a Gypsy female to marry a gaje, because Gypsy women are the guarantors for the survival of the population.
Britain's youngest Gypsy bride has wed in a lavish ceremony costing £50,000. Danielle Maughan, who has appeared in the hit television show My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, was one day past her 16th birthday when she married 21-year-old Brendan Joyce this weekend.
More than half of all states allow parties between the ages of 16 and 18 to be married based on parental consent alone. Fifteen states allow parties younger than age 16 to be married; depending on the state, the exception is based on judicial approval and/or if one party is pregnant or has had a child3.
Another featured gypsy, Nettie, said that everyone is treated with the same level of respect, regardless of whether they are in a relationship with a relative or not. “Some marry cousins, we don't treat them differently. They are family and we love them,” she said.
The RTFHS website includes lists of surnames that frequently occur in the Gypsy and Traveller community. Gypsy surnames which occur in Surrey include Cooper, Matthews, Ayres, Smith, Green, Taylor, Williams, Brazil, Shepherd, Beaney, Chapman and Scott among others.
No. Roma identity is something you're born with. Your Romanipen is what defines you as a Roma person (aka “gypsy”, though that word is a racial slur). It's something you are born with and raised in, and almost impossible for an outside to understand or adopt.
Gorger comes from the Romani language gorgio or gadjo, referring to a person who is not an ethnic Romani. Its etymology is obscure. In 19th-century England, a gorger was adopted as a slang term for a “man,” including a “dandy” or “landlord.”
