Family Tree Research

I glanced out the window multiple times yesterday and was surprised, but happy, to see more snow falling.  Even though it was only 30 degrees out this morning, there was no snow left on the ground, and sidewalks, roads, and dirt areas just looked slightly damp.  Vehicles in the parking lot had heavy frost on them and one vehicle at the bakery had several inches of snow on the trunk and rear bumper...  But it's bright and sunny this morning, and we're supposed to reach 62 degrees this afternoon, even though the grass and leaves in the back yard are covered in a hard shell of frost.
   I'm still digging into our Busey family connections, as, as usual, I am amazed at how many children were produced by families during our history.  Large families came about from (a) no family planning, (b) no birth control, (c) the need of more help to produce more food for more mouths, and (d) the high mortality rate of children during those times.  Being one of only two siblings, I simply can't imagine being one of ten, twelve, or twenty-four offspring...  What is even more frightening to realize is how many children were miscarried, or were stillbirths, and their existence simply isn't recorded anywhere...  My father's mother had seven children that I'm aware of - the first two died in the Spanish Flu pandemic, and Aunt Louisa lived for only a few minutes before dying.  That left four healthy children, three of who had kids of their own.  I'm just taken aback at listing a norm of eight to twelve children per couple, of whom six to nine went on to have another large generation of offspring...  It's like rabbits - we multiply geometrically.
  I thought it was amazing to have 79 relatives with the same first name of Hatevil (pronounced Hate-evil); there are so many repetitions in the Busey family of Christian names that it can be very confusing - you have to be certain of the year that person was born, the names of the parents, and the name of the spouse.  It's also a bit confusing when one man marries multiple sisters - one dies in childbirth, and he marries the next, who dies, and he marries the next...  That just seems weird to me.  But, I suppose, back when families were scarce, you had to keep going back to the same well for replenishment.  I'll continue to dig.