This book investigates family life in nineteenth-century European territories of the Russian Empire within the latter methodological inquiry. Given the often restrictive laws and policies (manorial rights and serfdom up to 1861, the pervasive role of the Catholic Church and absence of civil marriage and divorce, in addition to deep-rooted customary practices), how did women and men in Lithuania manage to normalise and solve the problems of their family life? The book uncovers that it was possible through the adoption of unofficial, and often illegal, solutions.