How did life span affect family life in the chesapeake region in the 1700's?

The colony of Chesapeake grows very slowly and to survive they had to get new immigrants to England, mostly these immigrants were men who were between their late teens and 20 and died shortly after arriving. In the colony men competed for the affection of women since for every 6 men there was a woman. Most of the men could not find a partner, many marriages were destroyed by the death of a partner in 7 years and almost nobody knew a grandfather.