Unusual number of Children's Death - Stanhoe, Norfolk 1800-1801

[K Bowden]

Hi

On tracing my family tree I came across an entry for a sibling of an ancestor of mine.
Her name was Ann Walker and she died aged 8 in 1801, not so unusual at that time, but also listed in the same 12 month period were 10 burials, 7 of them children ranging from 0 to 12 years old, in Stanhoe, Norfolk. This isn't a very large place today and I don't think it was back then. 

This struck me as strange, so many children, so I wondered if there could have been any illnesses etc. at that time and where I could investigate it further?

Karen

[K Bowden]

Hi

On tracing my family tree I came across a sibling of an ancestor Ann Walker 1793-1801, Stanhoe, Norfolk.  She died aged 8, not, unfortunately, unusual for that time, but also listed in the Bishop Transcripts were 10 other burials in the a 12 month period and 7 of them were children, ranging from 0 to 12. 

This struck me as an usually high proportion, and left me wondering if there was an illness, or epidemic in Norfolk at this time  - any thoughts, or suggestions were I could possible find out?

Cheers Karen

[silaswall]

Have you tried looking in one of the newspaper archives? This may give details of an epidemic or  extreme weather conditions. It might also be worth checking others years for Stanhoe to see how 1801 compared with these.

[philipsearching]

http://www.hyattfamily.co.uk/docs/General%20genealogy%20help/british%20epidemic%20timeline.txt
is interesting, but I cannot vouch for it's accuracy.

silaswall makes a very good point about comparing other years - and I would add comparing neighbouring parishes to see if the results are similar.  If the high proportion of child deaths in 1801 in Stanhoe compared to other years is repeated in other parishes then an epidemic (or other events such as a poor harvest leading to starvation) could be a cause.

There have been several studies of health and mortality in Norwich - but city life was very different from rural life.  I am not aware of any studies of the rural population in Norfolk in the years around 1800.

Philip

[silaswall]

Thank you for posting the link. It looks interesting.

[K Bowden]

thanks for that, Karen

[iluleah]

Flu, smallpox, measles were all serious life threatening illnesses at that time and in small places if one person contracted any of them it would spread very quickly, young and old particularly vunerable

This is a ebook on 'A history of epidemics in Britain' https://archive.org/stream/historyofepidemi02crei#page/580/search/norfolk

I have research in this area of Norfolk and have found similar to yourself more children than was normal ( for that time) dying