Does family history get to you sometimes?

[iluleah]

I am sure in many cases the Rhesus factor was the case, however the further you go back the less medication and  health care was available with little to no pre/post natal care and they didn't know then about it  and with pregnancy and birth lots of things can go wrong even now.
Now we have very good medical professionals, knowledge, medication  and resources

Oh yes, I realise that there could be many reasons for the loss of so many children.
But as I am Rhesus negative, I must have inherited it from somewhere!

My daughter is Rhesus negative, as is my mother. I'm not so I must be a carrier of the gene and if I  look back on my direct lines  I can see those 'potentially' who also could have been Rhesus negative who had a 1st child and lost those children born after the first one

[panda40]

I’m getting frustrated by the family line I’m tracing at the moment. I’m back to 1700 and trying to get back to the next generation. So my primary source is Paris records. I’m luck they are on findmypast. The surname is unusual but low and behold there is a William born in 1697 and another in 1698 both have different parents. Same parish. Now to play detective and find out which one is mine.
The joys of family history.
Regards
Panda

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Sounds like my three Mary Brownings!

[coombs]

Yes it can get to me at times, it can be a chore.

Especially as I have a Smith ancestor who died in 1849, and said "Not born in county" in 1841. And a London ancestor who died in Feb 1851 and again, said she was not born in county in 1841. I cannot yet find a marriage of her to her first hubby but it was around 1810. She would have been about 20 then, I did find a likely one in Devon but the original marriage record says she was a widow. Wed by license but I think Diocese of Exeter and their records may have been destroyed during the war like many Devon wills were.

[Stanwix England]

Yes it does, it's hard to see what people have been through.

What gets me is the stories you sometimes have to read between the lines. I've seen people who I suspect were struggling with mental illness, who seem to crash through life with no other explanation.

Or the family break ups where a spouse deserts their family. Very sad.

[Treetotal]

I especially find that the Irish relies frustrate me as they fled Ireland around the time of the potato famine and the place of birth is only ever given as Ireland. Also their surnames are very common which adds to the frustration. I also have Jones from Wales, usually called Thomas or Joseph 
Carol

[Top-of-the-hill]

  The mention of mental illness reminded me of one branch of my family where it seems to occur. It was one family of cousins of my grandfather, and I had known from earlier research that one woman spent some time in a mental hospital, which I put down to possible post-natal depression. I then found her in 1939 in the Canterbury Mental Hospital, with 2 of her daughters, which seemed very odd and is on my list for future investigation.
    I then discovered that her older sister had drowned under mysterious circumstances, having been suffering from "mental depression". (This was most carefully described in the local paper to avoid any implication of suicide.) Yet another sister was in Maidstone mental hospital in 1939.
    The two sisters who survived seem to have come through it, as I have later records of them.

[coombs]

My ancestor killed himself in rural Suffolk in 1894. He used strychnine, and a neighbour said he always seemed a bit eccentric but never enough to kill himself. He had 2 children who were later admitted to the county asylum.

Another son moved to Essex in about 1905, I did hear some mills in Suffolk were shutting down so he must have got more work opportunities at Rankin Mill in Stambridge.

[kelzies]

It definitely does. We all have our 'Who Do You Think You Are' sadness moments I think - it'd be hard not to feel for your ancestor's tragic stories.

My grandmother had an older brother that we didn't know about. He was illegitimate (although I think my great-grandfather was the father) and went to his mother's side of the family. He died at only 13 and he would've most likely gone to school with my grandmother. Did she know who he was?

My 3x great-grandmother killed her just-born baby. Reading the very detailed description of how she went about it... it did break me.

And another ancestor shot himself in front of his wife and daughter. He held on for two hours afterwards. That made me sad and angry, for him to do that in front of his family.