second suicide !

[Kennington]

Help,

I've found another suicide in the same family. I'm afraid if I carry on I'll find more - I feel so sad.

Should I carry on regardless ? Perhaps if I never order another death certificate I can live in blissful ignorance.

Has anyone else had this much bad news ?


Mary

[Pollynation]

I found one in mine, but i still wouldn't give up on death certificates.

I know ignorance is bliss, but you would always feel something was missing if you didn't get them.

Unfortunately life for some was very hard, they didn't have the Samaritans or councilors back then.

Good luck with your "tree", and i hope you receive some good news for a change.

Best wishes
Pauline

[Kennington]

Pauline,

Thanks for your comment.

It was such a shock to get the certificate this week.

He was such a cornerstone to my research. Most of my other deaths seem to be TB, which was a very common cause.

Life must have been unbearably hard in those days for some.

Mary

[casalguidi]

Hi Mary

I certainly wouldn't give up.  Many people research their family trees without purchasing any death certificates.  I must admit that I have purchased very few - mostly only when I have been stuck and looking for some evidence of a family connection.

At some time in the future you may wish to further your research by looking for inquest/newspaper reports which, of course, you wouldn't have had knowledge of had you not purchased the certificates.

Some years ago, I purchased a death certificate where the cause of death was given as "general paralysis of the insane" and was really very shocked to learn that this was the standard term for an intimately transmitted disease.

Unfortunately, in family history, it is always the doom & gloom that comes to the fore.  Court cases, death reports etc. filled so much of the news yet our ancestors who lived their lives in a blissfully simple and law abiding manner never got a mention.

Best wishes

Casalguidi

[Nick Carver]

The pity is that the reason for the suicide is never recorded. My great grandfather hanged himself and the prevailing story in the family was that it was because having served with the British forces in the Crimea, he as an Irishman could never go back to Ireland. Having done some research, it is clear that he was born in London and was the son of the ancestor who served in the Crimea. Sounds as if the story was concocted on compassionate grounds as something almost acceptable for the family to give out.

[Floss]

My mums dad died when she was 3 years old (she's 73 now).  She never spoke about him and I never asked, she just said he'd died and that was it.  I sent for the death certificate and found he's gassed himself whilst 'of unsound mind' from that I found a report in the newspaper about how he'd lost his job, became depressed and fearing that he couldn't support his family he took his own life.  I thought my mum might be upset when I found all this but she wasn't, she already knew !! If I'm honest, it brought tears to my eyes when I read it, so sad, but its part of MY history.
I'd keep sending for the certificates Mary, I'm sure there's sad stories in everyones history, its just that some have more than others.

Fiona

[claudia99]

Mary
I have instances time after time of numerous children dying very young, often before they are 1, of things such as measles which today would be so less likely to happen.
I even found a brother of my grandfather that he himself knew nothing about.
I could get very depressed about this, but think that it only helps to try to understand the life of my ancestors.
People often talk about their "tree" as just the facts ie date and place of birth and same for marriage and death and that is all.
However depressing it might be to find sad things in your ancestors lives, I think this is what family history is all about - finding out about the day to day lives of our ancestors, how they lived, etc and that included all the tragedies that befell them.
I would keep on with the certificates as it is a coinicence I am sure that you were unlucky enough to come across two suicides.  Even if you do come across another, just look on it as a coincience and giving you more inforamtion on the lives of the people they left behind.

[Kennington]

Thanks everyone for your kind thoughts.

I suppose any death certificate is going to be sad if you think of the person. The saddest ones as you say are the young children. and there were so many of them !

Best wishes to you all
Mary