Discovery of a suicide - Genealogists' Forum

ElizabethHerts · #1 17-02-17, 20:48

I have been looking at the newly released British Royal Navy Allotment Declarations and have been looking at some of the brothers of my ancestor James Purkis.

I knew that his brother William had died young and I have checked the possible death I had for him on the GRO Index, which confirmed that he was 27 when he died.

Earlier today I downloaded his Allotment Declaration for 1836 and noted his wife Sarah Jane (mn Primmer). He had three daughters born to him, one probably posthumously.

I thought I'd look for his death in the newspapers. Here is the link:

http://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/v...18381126%2f028

It is the second column from the right, half-way down.
I hadn't realised the history behind his death and my mother wouldn't have known either.

He must have been a very unhappy man to have cut off his hand and to have hung himself. His poor wife, what an ordeal.
The rest of the brothers seemed to have been a lot more stable, thankfully.

Olde Crone · #2 17-02-17, 21:25

Suicide is always such a sad waste and I always want to say ( uselessly of course) " just hang on for six months, things will change".

Sometimes this family history hobby gives you pause for thought.

OC

ElizabethHerts · #3 17-02-17, 21:28

Yes, all those blighted lives, OC.

He had threatened to kill his family as well. One wouldn't blame his wife for feeling a certain sense of relief after his death, although she must have been in dire straits financially.

Jill · #4 18-02-17, 07:56

It always comes as a shock even with the space of time. We found that OH's 3x ggfather hanged himself in 1848. I recently found a newspaper article that says he was found hanging from a pine tree...we live on the hill above where he lived in what was then woodland where the are still some old pines.

ElizabethHerts · #5 18-02-17, 08:24

Jill, it personalises the person on your tree. For you it must be even more real when you live so close to the place where your OH's ancestor died.

Some of the people on our trees are fairly anonymous; apart from baptisms or births, marriages, deaths, children born and census entries we might not know much more about them. Newspaper articles, when they exist, are a boon.

Off topic, I was delighted last year when I stumbled across a newspaper report I hadn't seen before on the marriage of my grandparents in June 1915 in the Surrey Advertiser half a column long including details of what my grandmother wore and who attended and what presents were received.

JBee · #6 19-02-17, 15:56

It's even worse when a child sees its deceased parent being taken out of the house following such an event.

Sue from Southend · #7 19-02-17, 16:47

My 2x gt grandfather and his father both committed suicide within seven years of each other. I still can't find where the orphaned children (including my gt grandfather) went after this tragic event. I've often wondered whether one of them found their father ....

Kit · #8 19-02-17, 23:14

I found a coroners report where the verdict was "accidentally" shooting himself in the head twice while carrying 2 guns. I feel the verdict was to save the family the embarrassment of a suicide result.

Lindsay · #9 20-02-17, 07:28

The saddest I've found was the brother of my 7xg-grandfather back in the 1700s. He was 17, and a note by his burial record said he was found hanged in a tree.

ElizabethHerts · #10 20-02-17, 07:49

Unfortunately suicide is only too common these days. Our family has been affected by it in the not too dim and distant past, and it left behind a legacy of family division.

I just hope that the daughters of William Purkis were too young to really fathom out what was going on. He died in 1838 and his daughters were born in 1834 and 1836, with another being baptised in 1839.