So many Deaths.......

[Darcy]

Hi All,

I am sure everyone on RootsChat has unearthed some sort of tragedy in their family tree.

I am saddened by the deaths of so many children in mine.

My 3rd Great grandparents on the Fisher side had 10 children. Only 4 survived childhood. In one instance they lost a son and daughter within one week.

Strangely my Great grandparents also lost a son and a daughter within weeks.

I wonder how we would cope with such tragedy these days?

I suppose  death was an every day fact of life for the people back then and they were much more involved in the actual arrangements than we are.

Because we have been distanced from death we can't imagine how they lived with such heartache.

I would appreciate your thoughts on this rather depressing but important subject.

Aaron

[newbie]

Hi Aaron,
I don't think we can begin to imagine the trauma and heartache of  losing a child or children .  It must affect those concerned very deeply.
Maybe because it was not a rare event (as today)people accepted it, that's not to say that they were not affected by it.  When I was at the Record Office yesterday - searching again! I noticed that on several pages there were many many deaths recorded of children and they had been annotated "Diptheria"  "Scarletina" some I recall from the same family, diseases which today are prevented by vaccination and are rare.  It certainly made me think at the time how sad that period of time must have been for the families.
I'm sure there is a link somewhere  where you can find out when  disease outbreaks occurred - Chris do you know?
Newbie

[MrsLizzy]

I just found out this week that my great-great grandmother's next younger sister lost all three of her little girls in one week to diphtheria.  They were aged 8, 5 and about 6 months.  In later years she lost her eldest son aged 23, although I don't know the cause yet.  She went on to have further children but how heartbreaking it must have been.

Sometimes I really feel for my ancestors.

[Grandad james]

Hi all,
I believe the name of the book was something like "Less than a pound a week" and it mentioned that in London in the late 1800s the first thing most parents did was to take out the 1d a week burial insurance plan.
They were earning less than £1 per week and could be paying up wards of 10d on Insurance ... almost a days wages.

Grandad James.

[Fitty]

My grandmother took out penny policies on my Mum and Uncle when they were born.  Mum used to say " i hope i dont go first beause i'd love to know how much they'll pay out".  Mum died about 5 years ago and the penny policy was paid up to date...(68years).  the policy paid out £150.   lol   I suppose in the 1930's there would have been enough to cover all the funeral costs.

[Floss]

Whilst researching my tree I came across some very distantly relations who had triplets - Faith, Hope and Charity - born October 1836.  Charity died 14th Nov 1836, Hope died 1st Dec 1836 and Faith died 4th Dec 1836.  Have also come across quite a few twins in my family where only one survived.

Fiona

[D ap D]

We were in Australia a couple of years ago and visited one of the German cemeteries near the Clare Valley, not far from Adelaide. What struck me was a row of headstones, all of the same style from a family who lost 12 children in near enough consecutive years. Not only had the parents been persecuted enough to leave their home country, and endure the hardships of setting up somewhere completely different with a foreign language, but to lose so many offspring....


My 3x grandmother married when she was 18, had 3 children and was widowed by the time she was 25. She lived until she was over 80, and never remarried.

It makes you stop and think how good we actually do have it these days.

[MrsLizzy]

My late grandmother married when she was 21 and was widowed after about 8 years of marriage.  I always used to think it was because of devotion to his memory that she never remarried, until in her last years, she told me that she shouldn't have married him, because she didn't love him.  Apparently the man she'd been pining for all those years was one Walter Patterson, a Canadian airman, who'd asked her parents for her hand and had been turned down, because they didn't like the idea of their Joan living so far away from them.  Imagine that she could remember his name after so many years - I can't remember my boyfriends!  Instantly forgettable, the lot of them!

[Darcy]

That's a sad story MrsLizzy

I imagine a lot of people, women especially, have had their lives ruined because their parents held them back.

I expect distance lent enchantment to the airman - we always want what we can't have

My mother always said that I could do whatever I wanted as long as it was legal 

Cheers
Aaron