1911 heartbreaker
 

Little Arthur William Rogers Wells aged 3 was put to bed on census night and never woke up.

For those that can't see the image, his name has been crossed out and "Died 3.4.11 6am" written in the margin, and the number of children born and died duly amended. One of OH's distant relations.

How sad, Jill. Sometimes that census snapshot really illuminates the landscape.

Oh, how sad. We tend to forget how fragile life was, even just 100 years ago.

OC

How very sad.

Of course it is so sad for the family, but also interesting that they chose to delete his entry when it should have been left, as he was alive at midnight of 2nd April.

I expect their grief overcame everything. I've often found misunderstanding of the rules in 1911 helpful, I've found adult children who are actually living elsewhere listed and then crossed out (but still legible) as well as children who died well before 1911 included.

Yes, I agree.

Doesn't it make you want to get the certificate to see what had happened?

It's a bit too distant a relation to spend out on, there are some direct line death certs I still have to buy.

The 1911 census confused me with one family of my husband's. A list of children, many with the same name, whose ages didn't work biologically. Then it dawned on me that they'd all but two died in infancy. At least they were recorded and I knew who the parents were - it wouldn't have been clear from the births and deaths indexes.