Child mortality was much higher years ago but I don't for one second believe that most children weren't loved and mourned deeply. Testimony about the first two Bronte girls who died young (Mr Bronte outlived his wife and all 6 of his children) and of one of the Carr family (Quaker biscuit manufacturers) nursing her young son as he was dying of diphtheria are more usual.
Mind you I am often struck at how many of my forebears had a child that died and then had 2 or 3 more all with the same name who also perished. I'd be tempted to change the name in the hope of changing their fortune!
__________________
Love from Nell
researching
Chowns in Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire
Brewer, Broad, Eplett & Pope in Cornwall
Smoothy & Willsher/Wiltshire in Essex & Surrey
Emms, Mealing + variants, Purvey & Williams in Gloucestershire
Barnes, Dunt, Gray, Massingham, Saul/Seals/Sales in Norfolk
Matthews & Nash in Warwickshire
|