Infant mortality

[Hackstaple]

As all Rootschatters know our ancestors tended to have large families with many infant deaths. I was just looking at the Universal Magazine for 1754 which published mortality tables every 2 months for the London area. This is a typical entry - July 23rd to Aug 20th 1754:
Total deaths London area 1754, Christened Males 569, Females 543.
Died - within the City walls 111
London, other 328
Middlesex & Surrey 677
Westminster 310

Died under 2 years - 487
between 2 and 5 -153
betw. 5 & 10  - 42
betw. 10 & 20 - 33
betw. 20 & 30 - 120
betw. 30 & 40 - 122
betw. 50 & 60 - 142
betw. 60 & 70 - 97
betw. 70 & 80 - 55
betw. 80 & 90 - 30
betw. 90 & 100 - 3
That means the death rate before age 2 was 28%!

On the same page the prices of fresh produce appear. Farnham in Surrey was the cheapest place to buy at whilst Reading was the most expensive.
 

[Shropshire Lass]

I've noticed that there seems to be a big increase in infant mortality in the family lines that move from the countryside to urban areas.  I suppose overcrowding and poorer food would contribute to that change.

Monica

[bearkat]

TB was a big killer in the towns.

[jorose]

Overcrowding and lack of clean water supply, not to mention all that sewage in the streets!

Average life expectancy for women at that time was between 35 and 45 years
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=pih.section.18

http://www.btinternet.com/~m.royden/mrlhp/local/hospitals/hospitals.htm - here it mentions that at one point life expectancy in Liverpool was only 24 years.

[LFS]

Dear Hackstaple
Some years ago I was lent 10 years worth of parish mags - which listed bmds for the church (in Burton on Trent).  Unfortunately at the time I didn't have time (or thought I didn't and really regret it now) to record all the names but just wrote down numbers, babies, under fives, etc.  It made horrifying reading.  Amazingly often a child would be baptised, only to be quickly followed by burial of both it and mother.  If the weather went very cold, and the father was laid off (many people were employed in trades that stopped in very cold weather, such as building), then there was no money for heating and food.  The number of deaths of small children and babies, and the very old increased very quickly, and although once this was noticed soup kitchens and distribution of fuel was set up, it followed the problem.  And of course in hot weather there were epidemics.  They say the past is a different country don't they?
Linda

[Hackstaple]

It makes you wonder how lucky we are to have been born when our ancestors were continuously drawings lots with Death.

[Lemontree]

Hi

Developing countries still have the same sorts of statistics that our ancestors had for survival over the age of 5years

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/goals_2005/goal_4.pdf

Incidently Afganistan has a life expectancy the same as Liverpool - 24years

We are still drawing straws depending on where in the world we are born

Lemon

[MarieC]

Yes, the stats are very sobering, and give one pause for reflection.

My ancestors seem, on the whole, to have lived reasonably long lives for the time, but then it is hard to find children who died in infancy.  Has anyone else had this problem?  If you don't know that they ever existed, you don't know to look for them, if you see what I mean!  I have found three such infant deaths in my family, purely by chance.

The saddest was a little boy born to my ggreat-uncle and his wife.  He was an Anglican priest, and by all reports a saintly and much-beloved man.  As far as I know, he had no other children - I had thought he had none at all.  The child was found by a kind Rootschatter visiting the church in the little Welsh village where my ancestor ministered, and finding the little tombstone in the churchyard. 

MarieC

[LFS]

Yes, I've just been working through Rotherham Burial Register for the 1940s - the number of stillbirths is amazing - that's before you get to infant deaths - and that's comparatively recent.  I've also got some infant deaths I can't find - the only way I'm going to pin them down is get the parish register for Duffield, Derbyshire and work through them.
Linda