What was the saddest death in your Tree ?

[Bee]

what makes this so sad is that he was quite wealthy only a few years before his death so how he ended up in the workhouse i dont know yet,

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the workhouses also get used as a sort of hospital.

My saddest death is that of a 7 year old child who was knocked down and killed by a motor car in full view of his father and younger brother in 1929.

Bee

[KernishKim]

Yeah but Bee, How do you KNOW that? Im a family tree addict, but I would love to put a few stories like that in, to make it more interesting.

[KernishKim]

Bee - just read your "intrigued by a headstone " thread. Got my answer then!! Good for you to find something interesting - and follow it through! Well done!!

[Bee]

Mary,

It's surprising how far back the newspaper archives go so if you have an approximate date of a possible incident then it's quite possible to find a report about it

Bee

[KernishKim]

How do you do that? Is there a website for newspaper archives?
(DOH)!!
xxxxx

[drakes]

   Saddest in my tree is the one birth cert. I still can't find - Nellie Arnold who died at 15 in the US, but born in England,  and my grandmother talked a lot about her older sister, but whenever I am researching the dates of 1887 - 1910 I always remember what's ahead for all of them - WWI - that's really sad!

 drakes

[KathyM]

If you have a death certificate with an unusual death (eg accident) - you can usually find something in the local paper - local linraries will have copies and if you email them - some are very helpful - they will send you a photocopy ...... If you live near enough to search yourself - they are a wonderful source of info.

My saddest death is my great great grandfather - Abraham Dunning - He came out of the mines and got a job working as a labourer for a firm of Joiners......and was digging out the engine bed in a mill.  His own boss and the mill owner were discussing the job and told him to remove a pipe in the 'hole' - the millowner said it was a disused pipe from when the mill was extened 3 years before - they handed him a sledge hammer and he broke the pipe, which was the gas main - as he was using a gas lamp, it caused an explosion and he was badly burnt.  They coated him in oil, wrapped his head, neck, arms, back and feet in cotton wool and sent him home - where he died the next day of shock!

I read the report at our local library - and the following weeks paper had the coroner's court report - that upset me too !  Abraham's eldesdt daughter was there to speak on behalf of her father - the contrac tor and the mill owner both had a solicitor!!!!   Poor Abraham - his family couldn't even afford a grave stone !

[joboy]

There were a couple of sad instances but perhaps the saddest was that of my great grand aunt who, as a spinster, married a widower with 7 children in London on 1st August 1853 and 12 months later they embarked at Southampton to make a life in Adelaide.
When they arrived in December 1854 she was heavily pregnant and both she and the child died in January 1855.
I have transcripts of correspondence at that time in which it is stated that 'she was grossly misused by the nurse who attended her'.
joboy
 

[Janine]

I am still not sure if it was my ggrandfather or my great uncle Clint ... fell in a huge vat of boiling water at a tannery.  Will find out soon the details.
Also in researching Erin, Ontario, Canada, a small village of mostly Irish immigrants, two children were killed in a field under a tree they had gone to for shelter in a storm ... lightning struck them, brother and sister 5 and 7.  Not my rellies, but so sad!  In a small village everyone would have been affected.
Yes, life certainly must have been hard ... I hate to hear when people today talk about how tough life is, and the hard challenges out teens face today!  What a laugh THAT is ...
Janine