Genealogists' Forum - We have branches everywhere!



Go Back   Genealogists' Forum - We have branches everywhere! > Research > Family History General Discussion

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 19-01-20, 22:04
Kit's Avatar
Kit Kit is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 3,716
Default So sad

I'm not yet a week into my "lets kill off the undead" in my tree and it is so depressing.

I'm up to the B's. The family I'm looking at now had 13 children according to the 1911 census, of which only 4 had survived.

I had high hopes for one daughter, she "escaped" and got married in 1900. However by the 1901 census her husband was a widower. Lucy and her daughter died just after birth.

The family are complicated as Dad was illegitimate and he can't make up his mind whether to use his mother or father's surname for both him or his kids and both surnames have a heap of different spelling options just to make it more fun. They also had a 21yo daughter appear on the 1901 census and she too must have been illegitimate and so there are 3 names she might have been born under and I can't find any for the registration district she should have been registered at.

oh the joys of this hobby of ours.
__________________
Toni
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 19-01-20, 23:55
kiterunner's Avatar
kiterunner kiterunner is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 25,270
Default

One of the side branches I have added to my tree recently is my 1st cousin 5 times removed, Calvin Columbus Evans 1818 -1883. He and his wife Jane Turbefield had 16 children, and I have found death dates for 9 of them dying in infancy, another two must have died young as there was another one of the same name a few years later, and another doesn't appear on the censuses so I guess she died young too; only 4 of the 16 seem to have made it to adulthood.
__________________
KiteRunner

Family History News updated 29th Feb
Findmypast 1871 census update
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 20-01-20, 09:22
Olde Crone Olde Crone is online now
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 4,766
Default

I have Martha Lawton who had 19 children in 25 years. The first six died within 3 weeks of each other, of smallpox. The family seem to be the only ones in the village to die of smallpox. She then had 13 more children, only 3 survived to adulthood. Of those 3, one died childless, one vanishes from the records and I am descended from the other one, who only had one child. Martha was a widow for 40 years and outlived them all, dying at 84.

OC
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 20-01-20, 09:52
kiterunner's Avatar
kiterunner kiterunner is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 25,270
Default

It's so awful.
__________________
KiteRunner

Family History News updated 29th Feb
Findmypast 1871 census update
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 20-01-20, 11:27
Kit's Avatar
Kit Kit is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 3,716
Default

So much heartbreak.

Kate having a second child of the same name may not mean the first died. My mystery eldest child had the same name, Mary, as one of her sister's who also appeared on the same census as her.
__________________
Toni
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 20-01-20, 13:23
Oakum Picker's Avatar
Oakum Picker Oakum Picker is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 511
Default

My 6xg-gps had 16 children of whom 6 survived to adulthood including a triplet. Only one died the same year as baptised even the other 2 triplets lasted a little while. The parents lived to their early & late 70s & only their last child & 4th Ann lived longer.
__________________
Glen
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 20-01-20, 14:06
kiterunner's Avatar
kiterunner kiterunner is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 25,270
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kit View Post
So much heartbreak.

Kate having a second child of the same name may not mean the first died. My mystery eldest child had the same name, Mary, as one of her sister's who also appeared on the same census as her.
I know, OC, but I haven't found any evidence of those two surviving.
__________________
KiteRunner

Family History News updated 29th Feb
Findmypast 1871 census update
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 21-01-20, 12:08
Lindsay Lindsay is online now
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 898
Default

Conversely, I have a man who worked as a dustman and scavenger in the poorest parts of the east end of London, whose wife had 16 children. At least 15 made it to adulthood - one just vanishes. Contemporaries commented that the children of dustmen were known to enjoy good health.

In fact my man made a fortune and died wealthy, but the family lived for decades in notoriously filthy and overcrowded streets, with 'dust heaps' as tall as the houses in their back yard.

There doesn't seem to be any logic to it - I have plenty of reasonably comfortably-off families who buried more than half their children.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 21-01-20, 12:17
Olde Crone Olde Crone is online now
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 4,766
Default

Lindsay

Strong genes and a well developed immune system. My wide family, all country dwellers before 1850, had enormous families who generally lived to a good old age barring the odd accident. As soon as they moved into the cities, they died off, usually of tb or childbirth fever, neither of which had claimed any lives before.

OC
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 21-01-20, 15:35
Lindsay Lindsay is online now
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 898
Default

TB was a dreadful disease. It must have been awful to get your children through the difficult early years, only to see them succumb to TB in adulthood.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 19:15.


Hosted by Photon IT

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7 PL3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.