This paper explores family formation and dissolution in the Aegean island of Paros over the period 1894–1998. The examined issues are: trends in age at marriage, age gap between spouses, age differentials among different occupational groups, age at widowhood, remarriage, illegitimacy and bridal pregnancy. The main findings confirmed that certain characteristics of the ‘Mediterranean’ marriage pattern, such as low age at marriage for females, high for males and large age gap between spouses, were present in the study population up until the 1980s. The feature of the family cycle that has changed most dramatically over the examined period is age at widowhood, which has increased spectacularly owing to the impressive progress in adult, and especially maternal, mortality that took place in Greece in the post-war years.