Catching syphilis

[iolaus]

You have her marrying after her death

According to wkipedia (not always accurate I know) it is only caused by syphilis and says 10-30 years after infection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_paresis_of_the_insane

[Raybistre]

Post now modified with correct date of decease.
Thanks for pointing out my error iolaus.
Ray

[doddsie4]

   My great grandfather was admitted with it in 1904.     He was said to be violent, and was admitted on an Emergency Certificate, whatever that means.      Looks like it had driven him mad and he'd become dangerous.        He lived another 13 years before dying in the hospital in 1917.

[iolaus]

I would say she had it before her marriage

[LizzieW]

On the 1901 census my g.grandfather a butcher with his own shop was living with his 3rd wife and his 5 children from that and his previous 2 marriages.  In August 1902 he was found wandering and, originally, it was thought he was a labourer, he was found to be a tall, well nourished but demented man.  Apparently, he'd had a previous attack some 8 years previously which would have been between his 2nd and 3rd marriage.  So he married his 3rd wife whilst already infected but it must have been dormant then as he had 3 perfectly healthy children with his 3rd wife. 

It all seems very sad to me, his first wife dies after only 20 months of marriage leaving him with a baby to look after, yet he doesn't marry for another 10 years.  That wife died 4 years later (from delerium tremens so not a very good wife) and left him with another 2 children to look after.  At some stage after that wife's death he left Manchester (leaving his 3 children with his mother) and went to Yorkshire where the family originally came from.  It seems it was in Yorkshire that he became infected, but it was also where he met his 3rd wife.  She was 41 but still managed to give him 3 more children, but just as he must have thought he was settled, his past came back to haunt him and kill him.

[Annie65115]

I was once told that the phrase about the sins of fathers being revisited on their children refers to syphilis. I don't know if that's true!

[whiteout7]

Interesting conversation.  I have one in my family tree too. All his children lived. So I wonder if he caught Syphilis after his wife's last child or she stopped having children because he caught it. It killed him but she died 10 years later of a heart attack.

Would be interesting to look at his childrens families

[ciderdrinker]

Hello
I have a man Richard Davies dying in Staffordshire Asylum near Burntwood in the 1870's,his son is one of the staff,as his son is law who also dies of syphilis and his grandson dies there in 1914 William Smith also with syphillis
It seems the whole family revolved around the Asylum either as a patient or as a warder.
So in that case it's not just passed on to the sons but also grandsons.

Ciderdrinker

[doddsie4]

Lizzie,
          My G grandfather also lived in Manchester.      He was in Ancoats Hospital in 1901, and then Cheadle in 1903.