Joseph Booth (Week 15)
 

Name - "official" name and what they were known as: Joseph Booth

Date and place of birth: 8th May 1836 (DOB given on baptism entry)

Names of parents: Levi Booth & Ann Cooke

Date and place of baptism: 5th June 1836 at St Nicholas, Bradfield, South Yorkshire

Details of each of his or her marriages: 31st December 1860 at All Saints Parish Church, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, to Sarah Ellen Fairbairn.

Occupation(s): Steel Forgeman.

Addresses where they lived (including county if in UK) - and please list which censuses you have or haven't found him/her on (if s/he lived in census times!):
1841: Dobb Carr, Bradfield, South Yorkshire aged 5, with parents.
1851: Middlewood, Worrall, Oughtibridge, South Yorkshire, aged 14, Forgeman's Apprentice to George Parkin
1861: Wadsley near Sheffield, South Yorkshire, aged 24, with wife Sarah and her parents.
1871: Burrow Lees, Wadsley, nr Sheffield, South Yorkshire, aged 34.

Date, place and cause of death: 18th September 1872 aged 36. Died at Infirmary Hospital Sheffield of poplisical aneurism - amputation of the thigh! & Suffocation Fever.

Date and place of burial: 22nd September 1872 at Wadsley Church, Sheffield. Aged 36.

Details of will / administration of their estate: None.

Memorial inscription - Unknown.

How sad Claire, such a young man. Was his death a result of his work?

Hi. I am not sure if his death was work related. It is one of the deaths in my tree that always upsets me a little. Not just that he was very young when he died, but the cause of death sounds horrific "amputation of the thigh" :(

Hi Marg. I hadnt thought before about it being a work related death but you are probably right. I havnt checked local newspapwers before for anything about Joseph. I think copies of old local newspapers are held at the Sheffield Library. I dont live in Sheffield anymore so its not easy for me to check these; however, I might have to try and get myself across there later this year :)

Thanks Marg, I will look to put a request up if someone is near.

There wasnt an inquest. The death was registered by Joseph's wife, S.E. Booth and it gave the address that she was living at (presumably Joseph's address as well).

Claire I googled and brought up politeal aneurysm, which is quite rare.
From my understanding of what I read, it can cause a blockage behind the knee, which if it isn't successfully treated within 6 to 12 hours will require amputation. These days with scans and things, it would, in most cases be successfully treated, but sadly not in your ancestors case.
So although Joseph certainly had a dangerous occupation, it doesn't appear to be the primary cause of his death. Whether he had been living with the condition and an accident at work triggered the blockage, would have been hard to prove.

oh Julie, that sounds an even more awful death than I already though :(

Its so sad that today he probably would have survived this but the thought of an amputation of a thigh in 1872 makes me shudder. The 'suffocation fever' sounds just as awful on top of the amputation.

Yes Claire, it does but maybe the suffocation fever was a blessing in disguise, as it shortened his suffering. My mother was a nurse and she said nursing someone who died with gangrene was the worst imaginable. The pain relief would have been very basic.