What was the saddest death in your Tree ?

[Sue Thomas]

My gggrandfather Joseph died on Christmas Day 1871 from Bronchitis. In attendance was his son. Death wasn't notified until 29th Dec. That must've been a great time for the family don't you think

[JAP]

I don't think the subject is at all 'morbid' JAP - in those days death was part of life and therefore more acceptable.  It's only todays society with it's preoccupation with 'self' which can't handle the cencept of mortality.

 

Mobo, perhaps not 'morbid' but I think that we are kidding ourselves it we think that death - especially of babes and toddlers - was more acceptable for our forebears.  More expected, yes, but never acceptable.  Mothers grieved - even throughout long lives.  My Grandma Lizzie grieved till she died at 92.  And anyone who looks at photos taken at any stage during the life of my Gran Ada who died at 93 - knowing nothing of her past - invariably says what a beautiful face but so sad.

Ah well, there we are.

JAP

[Mobo]

 

Oooh.... I don't doubt people 'grieved' back then JAP, after all we're all human.  What I should perhaps have said was, that their attitude to death was more 'accepting' than ours.

 

[JAP]

Oooh.... I don't doubt people 'grieved' back then JAP, after all we're all human.  What I should perhaps have said was, that their attitude to death was more 'accepting' than ours.

 

Hi Mobo,

A comforting idea?

But I suspect that people back then railed bitterly against death just as much as we do now.  And continued to do so throughout their lives.  They well knew to 'expect' it and they, being so often so close to death, understood it so much better than we do - but 'accept' it?  I doubt it.

I once met two first cousins of my mother who were then in their 90s and they showed me - still with outrage and horror - the telegram and subsequent letter their young mother (who lived to 103) had received in 1916 when they were littlies informing their mother of the death, and then the appalling manner of that death, of their father.

To close on a brighter note, they also showed me with pleasure the telegram from the Queen when their mother reached 100.

JAP

[Rebecca Steele]

I always feel really sad when I think what my great grandmother Alice Morgan (nee Peverill) went through.

She gave birth to twins Frederick and Christopher and Christopher died at 11 months old of malnutrition. Which isn't surprising as my Grandad used to say that they went to school on bread and water when they could afford it.

A couple years later her son Robert died a few years old (my mum seems to remember hearing that he drowned, but I still have to find his death).

Then in 1927 her son Thomas aged 30 was killed in a motor cycle accident, leaving a wife and a young daughter (see my picture!) My Grandad always maintained that a wire was put across the road, but the verdict was 'accidental death'.

Then a few months later her husband Thomas Morgan aged 56 died of cancer.

 

My mum only met her once when she was a child, but remembers her as being a very hard scary woman ...... its not surprising really.

[Boongie Pam]

Mine I think was the death of Jeanie Green.  Her death cert just states "Dead Body Found in Castle Loch went ?"

It's one of my "Please help to decipher" posts (linked below).

If it hadn't been for a random piece of luck when I was mooching through the library I would never have found the full story.  The tragedy seemed to have touched more than the family.  So much so a poem was written about the incident.  Jeanie killed herself after she dropped a child in her charge and she was told the child died - which was untrue.

Poem:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,12962.15.html

Pam
 

[Shaztoni]

My GGGrandfather's siblings were by far the saddest in my tree.
First his elder brother died in the workhouse aged 10 of TB in 1887.
Then his younger sister when she was 8 in 1899 fell into a disused quarry that had been used as a manure pit, my gggrandfather was one of the first to be alerted but by the time he got there she had sunk, her body wasn't recovered, only one shoe. (years later one of his nephews bought the quarry and it is still in the family today)
Lastly his younger brother was killed in WW1 aged 21.

Sharon

[SusanBuck]

I feel saddest for my grgrangfathers daughters by his first marriage, Emily Jane and Maud Mary. Their mother Sarah Ann died of complications during childbirth in Jan 1876 in Sydney Australia, having lost one female child who died of convulsions at 10 months, 4 years earlier. In March 1876 the newborn George died and in Oct that same year another son William died of scarlet fever.

In November their father Robert took the two surviving girls Emily Jane and Maud Mary by ship back to England to be cared for and tutored by his sister Jane and her daughter Harriet in Devon. He then sailed back to his life in Australia.

In 1882 Maud Mary died of tuberculosis, Harriet also died in the same year. By 1880 aunt Jane died of tuberculosis when Emily Jane was 24 years.

From a newspaper advert in 1890 I know Emily Jane was trying to sell her aunts house in Devon. Then nothing, no marriage, not in the 1891 Census that I can find, and no death, I was hoping against all odds that she managed to survive and live a relatively happy life.

Then, what luck, 1901 Census, I found her aged 34, a certified hospital nurse in the employ of a clergyman and his family in Wiltshire. Oh frabjous day, Calloo Callay!

I have found so much fabulous background info in Newspaper archives, death notices, obituaries, bankruptcy notices, coronial inquiries, trade adverts, and town council reports and editorial - all giving me insight into the lives of my family members.

Happy searching
Sue

[D ap D]

There are a couple in my tree that I found particularly sad:

The first is a couple, Robert and Mary, who had 11 children between 1826 and 1846. Robert and 8 of the children are buried in 2 separate graves. Mary spent the final years of her life after Roberts death in the workhouse, where she died. She was buried alone in a council cemetery, with no stone to mark her grave.

The second is my gggp, John and Annie. They married in Aberystwyth in 1874 and had 3 children. In 1878 the youngest was born in South Wales. In 1879 Annie was a widow left to bring up 3 children aged between 1 and 4. The only family Annie had left was her mother-in-law back in Aberystwyth. I've not been able to trace where John died, hence no DC, no grave.

On searching the MIs recently I found one - no relation this time - from the early 1800s. A young mother of 22 and her 2 infant children (3 and 1) were killed while asleep when the wall of the neighbouring house collapsed and fell on them.