#1
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So many young deaths
Some families really had a horrid time of it.
I have been investigating the family of OH's 2xgt grandmother, Mary Burgon or Burgan, who came from Wentworth in Yorkshire. Her parents were Joseph and Sarah Burgan/Burgon, and there were eight children. Sarah died in 1839, aged 39. She was very young when she married, probably only about 15. On the 1841 Census Joseph is there with 4 children - William, Charlotte, Jane and Martha. By 1851 he is by himself. William married, as did Mary (whom I can't find in 1841). However, I have found all the burials for these: Sarah Burgan mother Sep 1838 39 Ann Aug 1840 25 John Oct 1840 20 Harriett Feb 1841 23 Jane Nov 1842 10 Martha Nov 1842 6 Charlotte possibly 1850 Five children died in 2 and a half years. I wonder what they died of. However, I'm not sure whether my curiosity is up to the expense of 5 death certificates! Poor Joseph, it must have been devastating for him. |
#2
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I suppose people coped because they had to, but it must have been so hard. In one line alone on my tree:
My 3xg-grandmother lost 2 children in the space of 3 weeks, both from smallpox. The youngest was 6 weeks old. Only 1 of the 5 children I know about lived to adulthood. Her daughter lost her husband and 2 of her 4 children in the space of a year (the youngest child had been born posthumously) Her daughter, my g-grandmother, lost 4 of her 8 children in the space of 2 years - and that was as late as the 1890s. They lived in the East End so perhaps it's not surprising - on my OH's tree they were mainly ag labs and they didn't seem to suffer so many children's deaths. |
#3
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Deaths in the same month always suggest to me that they died of the same thing, though when I have bought certs this hasn't always been so.
Whilst researching a tree of a family who married into mine quite a bit, in a Gloucestershire village I found burials over a 3 month period one summer of several siblings, cousins and second cousins. I am wondering if it was an outbreak of some kind. It could have been anything - I've also seen burial records for children which give cause of death as "summer diarrhoea".
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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 |
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