Ross family of Dykehead, Aboyne

[Donna Clark]

I have come across the inscription on a headstone in Coull Kirkyard erected by Sarah Calder in 1845. She was married to John Ross of Dykehead farm, Aboyne. The inscription includes details of four of her children, who all died in 1831:
Isabella 28 June, aged 23
Jane 11 July, aged 25
John 23 July, aged 30
William 4 Aug, aged 32

Does anyone know the background to these four siblings all dying within 3 months of each other? Was there a cholera/typhoid/flu outbreak? I've searched a lot of resources and come up empty-handed, and there are no death certificates available for that year.

[CaroleW]

Welcome to Rootschat

You can download copies of their respective death certs from Scotlands People - pay site

www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

If either Isabella or Jane were married at the time of death you will need to search under their married names

I cannot find entries for John or William matching the dates given but there is a William Ross death 4th June 1831

If you Google your question one response shows 9,600 deaths from cholera in Scotland in 1831

[flst]

As they died in 1831 there will be no death certificates to view.
flst

[Donna Clark]

Thanks for your help, Carole and flst. I had hoped there might be at least one parish burial record for these four names or something in local newspapers about a disease outbreak, but nothing so far.

Carole, I can only find one William Ross in Scotland's People, and the dates are all wrong - though Calder is recorded as his mother's maiden name, which is correct. I'm not willing to pay out to see an incorrect certificate. Once the Inverness records office re-opens, I'll take a run over and try to tackle some of my growing list of queries.

Thanks again.

[DonM]

9,600 died of cholera out of 2.5mm = 0.38% of the population.  I'd say you have fairly good chance of not getting it.  High risk areas for contracting cholera - ports and cities.  Aboyne is a substantial distance (for 1831) from any of these.

Could the family been wiped out by cholera sure, they could have had a bad water source combined with poor hygiene but then why didn't it kill the cook.  Cholera has no age boundaries, one gets it everyone gets it. 

Meningitis perhaps a more likely candidate as it can hit a specific age group anywhere.  Yes, more prevalent in infants/children but it can hit all ages. Without treatment it evolves quickly into septicaemia and life ends quickly.  Because parents fall into a different age group who have a lower risk they might have avoided it.  But, this still doesn't mean this is what killed them in a 5 week span.

You can speculate, reality is nobody today knows why they died. There is no mention of this in the Aberdeen Press and Journal.

Don

[CaroleW]

DUH - of course there wouldn't be any death cert for 1831.  I'm losing it!!

[flst]

The Statistical Accounts of Scotland are well worth reading. It gives an insight into how the people of the parish lived. I attach a link to the one for Aboyne parish.
flst
https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/viewer/nsa-vol12-Parish_record_for_Aboyne_in_the_county_of_Aberdeen_in_volume_12_of_account_2/nsa-vol12-p1047-parish-aberdeen-aboyne?search=aboyne

[patricia.ne017]

Hello. I am researching this family too and am similarly stumped with the 1831 deaths. However, I am descended from John Ross, mason, who was married to Amelia Ross in Aberdeen in 1824. After spending some years in the granite quarries in the Channel Islands, he disappears from the records around 1831. He and Amelia had a son, John Edward Ross born 1831 back in Aberdeen (according to later censuses) but no trace of a christening. John Edward Ross farmed Muir Cottage, Coull. His daughter, Jessie Maria Ross married Andrew Ross of Aboyne, grandson of John Ross and Sarah Calder. My late Mum said they had to get permission to marry because they were near kin so could my John (the mason) be the John who died in 1831? DNA doesn’t help because I am already descended from John and Sarah! As I say - stumped!

[hgs46]

Sorry, can't answer your question but if you look in Scotlands People Website and search under the Kirk Session Minutes (1810-1871) Page 146 (1831) of Aboyne & Glentanar, there is an entry mentioning an Isabel Birse and John Ross (son of John Ross, Farmer at Dykehead) in this parish. Just in case you are unaware of this.