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This overview of studies in historical demography and family history examines old age and aging. It takes a long-term perspective on representations and socioeconomic realities, and how they are interrelated. Discourses and norms are highly ambivalent, ideologically charged, and have deep social differences. The articulation of life courses and life phases with family dynamics is examined under the hypothesis of the harshness of the nuclear family. The nineteenth century and the second half of the twentieth are a complex period, balancing between continuities and changes. Evolutions since 1945 have been impressive but always ambivalent, and are better understood from a historical perspective.