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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Mobo on Monday 18 April 05 21:53 BST (UK)
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:'( :'( :'(
I think the saddest death in my tree has got to be my gt.gt. grandmother Mary DUNN (nee' MCNULTY) who died in 1867 age 34 from Asthma which she'd suffered from for 14 years, she must have been such a tiny wasted little thing.
She died a few months after giving birth to her fourth child Daniel, who died of whopping cough just before her, leaving three little girls to be brought up by their father.
Life was so hard then - you can't comprehend it.
:'( :'( :'(
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:'( Bless.
Mine has to be a choice between my gr gr grandparents having 2 margarets 5 years apart and them both dying before the ages of 3, the second one died one month after her baby sister. They had one daughter that lived and 6 lads!!
Or My gr grandmother dying of breast cancer one year after losing her baby son and husband to the 1924 Flu outbreak, leaving my gran to be brought up by her step sisters.
Yes life was cruel and hard then.
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hi mobo,
i would probalbly nominate my ggrandfather, Thomas Wm Baldridge who died from anaemia & asthma in Ripon workhouse in 1915, what makes this so sad is that he was quite wealthy only a few years before his death so how he ended up in the workhouse i dont know yet, but i believe his 2nd wife (40yrs his junior) may well have had some bearing on this state of affairs. :o
also have a few small children dying from the usual childhood illnesses that today can be immunised against, but guess thats just a sign of the times, still sad all the same.
sharren
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I'm always saddened by infant deaths. Gt gt gt grandfather Jacob lost his first two daughters before they reached a year.
His wife then gave birth to twin boys Jacob and William who died 5 weeks later on the same day from Smallpox.
Just a year later Jacob's wife died from diarrhea.
Not really the good old days!!
Sue
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In July 1870 my gt-gt-grandfather's brother, John Kershaw, was travelling back from work in The Strand on a horse-drawn onmibus to his stop at Highbury Corner. Somehow he slipped as he climbed down from the top deck and his head went under the wheel - he was killed instantly, in full view of several witnesses, including people drinking their Friday evening pints in the Cock Tavern.
The sad thing was he left a widow and eight children between the age of 13 and the youngest being just a few months old. A couple of these had to go to an institution for fatherless children in Surrey, to ease the burden on the his widow, Mary Ann Kershaw.
Someone travelling on the omnibus knew where James lived and ran down St Paul's Road to break the dreadful news to the family, and the eldest son then had to go to Charterhouse Square late that night to inform the dead man's brother about this awful tragedy...
Keith
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Lots of the children dying from scarlet fever. Some of them fell down mine shafts or were killed in fires underground, too horrendous to think about.
The strangest was ... a visitation from God ...
Su
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:'( :'( :'(
Aww - what a sad story Keith. In those days, when the head of a house died, the family could be decimated overnight. There was no 'benefit' then, and they were the very people who needed it !
:'( :'( :'(
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In 1861 one of my ancestors was widowed with 7 children the youngest 9 months old and then I found her death in 1870, can only find 4 of the children linving on their own in 1870, I guess maybe the others died as well. I cant imagine what it would have been like to try and bring up 7 children on you own in those days, it would be hard enough now let alone then.
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Just though Id tune in to the "lighter side" and have found such tales of sadness.
I too think about how our ancestors lived - children of 11 working in mines - to support their families especially if the Father had died.
Anyway, I would like to know how you find these stories out that happened in 1870s.
Ive found a Memorial to one of my ancestors who died in a mining accident in Durham, but thats about it.
Im not only interested - think Im addicted!!! To knowing EVERYTHING about my past family
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what makes this so sad is that he was quite wealthy only a few years before his death so how he ended up in the workhouse i dont know yet,
Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the workhouses also get used as a sort of hospital.
My saddest death is that of a 7 year old child who was knocked down and killed by a motor car in full view of his father and younger brother in 1929.
Bee
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Yeah but Bee, How do you KNOW that? Im a family tree addict, but I would love to put a few stories like that in, to make it more interesting.
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Bee - just read your "intrigued by a headstone " thread. Got my answer then!! Good for you to find something interesting - and follow it through! Well done!!
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Mary,
It's surprising how far back the newspaper archives go so if you have an approximate date of a possible incident then it's quite possible to find a report about it
Bee
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How do you do that? Is there a website for newspaper archives?
(DOH)!!
xxxxx
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Saddest in my tree is the one birth cert. I still can't find - Nellie Arnold who died at 15 in the US, but born in England, and my grandmother talked a lot about her older sister, but whenever I am researching the dates of 1887 - 1910 I always remember what's ahead for all of them - WWI - that's really sad!
drakes
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If you have a death certificate with an unusual death (eg accident) - you can usually find something in the local paper - local linraries will have copies and if you email them - some are very helpful - they will send you a photocopy ...... If you live near enough to search yourself - they are a wonderful source of info.
My saddest death is my great great grandfather - Abraham Dunning - He came out of the mines and got a job working as a labourer for a firm of Joiners......and was digging out the engine bed in a mill. His own boss and the mill owner were discussing the job and told him to remove a pipe in the 'hole' - the millowner said it was a disused pipe from when the mill was extened 3 years before - they handed him a sledge hammer and he broke the pipe, which was the gas main - as he was using a gas lamp, it caused an explosion and he was badly burnt. They coated him in oil, wrapped his head, neck, arms, back and feet in cotton wool and sent him home - where he died the next day of shock!
I read the report at our local library - and the following weeks paper had the coroner's court report - that upset me too ! Abraham's eldesdt daughter was there to speak on behalf of her father - the contrac tor and the mill owner both had a solicitor!!!! Poor Abraham - his family couldn't even afford a grave stone !
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There were a couple of sad instances but perhaps the saddest was that of my great grand aunt who, as a spinster, married a widower with 7 children in London on 1st August 1853 and 12 months later they embarked at Southampton to make a life in Adelaide.
When they arrived in December 1854 she was heavily pregnant and both she and the child died in January 1855.
I have transcripts of correspondence at that time in which it is stated that 'she was grossly misused by the nurse who attended her'.
joboy
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I am still not sure if it was my ggrandfather or my great uncle Clint ... fell in a huge vat of boiling water at a tannery. Will find out soon the details.
Also in researching Erin, Ontario, Canada, a small village of mostly Irish immigrants, two children were killed in a field under a tree they had gone to for shelter in a storm ... lightning struck them, brother and sister 5 and 7. Not my rellies, but so sad! In a small village everyone would have been affected.
Yes, life certainly must have been hard ... I hate to hear when people today talk about how tough life is, and the hard challenges out teens face today! What a laugh THAT is ...
Janine
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It's about time for someone to break into Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen sketch.
"And if you tell that to the young people today, they won't believe ya"
Cheers,
PeterB
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Far far too many sad deaths. Here's one very sad tale.
The father of my Gran (Ada) died in the 1800s when she was 7. He left his widow aged 29 in a land (NZ) where she had no relatives - with 6 children under 10 and a seventh on the way.
That was sad but ...
Gran and her sister Flo buried four little ones in Melbourne, Victoria in the same grave in less than 3 weeks in a measles epidemic in 1898. Already Flo had buried little Annie there - she died aged 5 days in 1892. Then, in 1898, Flo buried Charles 4y 11m on 12 April, Percy 2y 6m on 22 April, and her last remaining child, Hughey 7m, on 1 May. I can only think that my Gran, Ada, must have come down from the country to help Flo leaving her two littlies (aged 3 and 1) behind(?) but taking her eldest child, Eugene 5 - and Eugene too succumbed to the epidemic and was buried on 18 April with his little cousins.
The fates hadn't finished with them. Both Flo and Ada had daughters in 1899. In 1900, Flo and her husband and baby Violet went to the country to be with Ada - and Flo's husband died there that year. And Ada's little girl died there aged 2 in 1901.
My dear Gran worked her fingers to the bone and would have given you her last penny.
And, PeterB, had she lived into the Monty Python days, despite everything she'd been through, she would have had a good laugh (even if it was through tears) at your post!
JAP
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Hi, Mobo,
Posted my tale, and then went to bed, and have only just discovered your response this morning buried under all these other sad tales - it's not exactly "lighter side" reading is it?
Noticed that in my hasty post the man who died under the omnibus, John Kershaw, had his name accidentally mutated to "James" half-way through - my error. Also, the place that his daughter Mary, 9, and Raleigh, only 3, got put into was called an "Asylum for Fatherless Children", though I have since discovered that it was more like a boarding school; today it has a thriving old boys/girls network who remember their days there with affection...
Keith
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I have came across a family member who gave birth to 7 children 1 was a stillborn and 3 died all a year or 2 after their births. The 3 that didn't die had also lost children of their own, luckily 2 of the 3 both had other children that didn't die young.
SPaceY
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This is all getting very morbid ...
Grandma Lizzie's little sister, Maud died aged about 13. Grandma named one of her own daughters after Maud. Yes, you guessed, little Maudie died in 1911 aged 7 (all of Lizzie's other children survived - did Lizzie ever wonder whether she should have given her little daughter that name?).
Grandma Lizzie, an ancient unemotional person, once mentioned Maudie to me when I was about that age - quite out of the blue - and said "You never forget". And I remember my mother saying that the doctor had purged little Maudie thinking she had been eating green plums - actually she had appendicitis. And that she remembered the hearse with white horses decorated with white plumes.
I guess we all have sad present day stories but those of the past seem to have involved so very very many young deaths.
JAP
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The saddest one in my tree is the 18 year old brother of my greatgrandfather. The family story is that he was murdered. I found an article from a local newspaper, dated Dec. 1890, which reported his body being found. The article went into vivid description as to the condition of the body. It seems he walked home from the pit along his usual route, but never made it home, His body was found the next day next to the railway track, away from his normal route and they were awaiting the coroner's report. Now I will have to find the report or a later article to see if he was murdered.
The other sad thing about this death is that as the years went by four babies from the family (over three generations) were put into the same grave. My greatgrandfather's 3year old and 3 mth old daughters, who died two weeks apart in 1917, probably from the flu and my grandparent's first child who was born in 1925 with some sort of deformity and died weeks later. There is another one, but we haven't worked out exactly who he is.
Aren't we lucky that times have changed and these sorts of tragedies are fewer.
Wendy :'(
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:) :) :)
I don't think the subject is at all 'morbid' JAP - in those days death was part of life and therefore more acceptable. It's only todays society with it's preoccupation with 'self' which can't handle the cencept of mortality.
:) :) :)
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I agree ............ certainly not morbid ........ it's a matter of the facts that one unearths whilst studying their forebears.
Great uncle George died on Christmas Day 1891 ......... he was a handsome cab driver ......... worked the West End and that Christmas he must have been particularly busy around the theatres .......... worked all day and well into the night ........... and died ......... he was only 47.
The post mortem stated 'The doctor found him in bed ..... his body was cold and he looked like a man who had been frozen........ his limbs were intensely cold and he suddenly expired .......... conclusion;
'Congestion of the brain,diseased heart and lungs adherent'.
The poor soul was doing his best to provide for his family whilst very,very ill.
joboy
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:) :) :)
How sad joyboy !!
It would be nice think that our forebears can see their descendants remembering them in this small way - their plights weren't probably given much attention back then !!
:) :) :)
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My gggrandfather Joseph died on Christmas Day 1871 from Bronchitis. In attendance was his son. Death wasn't notified until 29th Dec. That must've been a great time for the family don't you think :o
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:) :) :)
I don't think the subject is at all 'morbid' JAP - in those days death was part of life and therefore more acceptable. It's only todays society with it's preoccupation with 'self' which can't handle the cencept of mortality.
:) :) :)
Mobo, perhaps not 'morbid' but I think that we are kidding ourselves it we think that death - especially of babes and toddlers - was more acceptable for our forebears. More expected, yes, but never acceptable. Mothers grieved - even throughout long lives. My Grandma Lizzie grieved till she died at 92. And anyone who looks at photos taken at any stage during the life of my Gran Ada who died at 93 - knowing nothing of her past - invariably says what a beautiful face but so sad.
Ah well, there we are.
JAP
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:) :) :)
Oooh.... I don't doubt people 'grieved' back then JAP, after all we're all human. What I should perhaps have said was, that their attitude to death was more 'accepting' than ours.
:) :) :)
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:) :) :)
Oooh.... I don't doubt people 'grieved' back then JAP, after all we're all human. What I should perhaps have said was, that their attitude to death was more 'accepting' than ours.
:) :) :)
Hi Mobo,
A comforting idea?
But I suspect that people back then railed bitterly against death just as much as we do now. And continued to do so throughout their lives. They well knew to 'expect' it and they, being so often so close to death, understood it so much better than we do - but 'accept' it? I doubt it.
I once met two first cousins of my mother who were then in their 90s and they showed me - still with outrage and horror - the telegram and subsequent letter their young mother (who lived to 103) had received in 1916 when they were littlies informing their mother of the death, and then the appalling manner of that death, of their father.
To close on a brighter note, they also showed me with pleasure the telegram from the Queen when their mother reached 100.
JAP
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I always feel really sad when I think what my great grandmother Alice Morgan (nee Peverill) went through.
She gave birth to twins Frederick and Christopher and Christopher died at 11 months old of malnutrition. Which isn't surprising as my Grandad used to say that they went to school on bread and water when they could afford it.
A couple years later her son Robert died a few years old (my mum seems to remember hearing that he drowned, but I still have to find his death).
Then in 1927 her son Thomas aged 30 was killed in a motor cycle accident, leaving a wife and a young daughter (see my picture!) My Grandad always maintained that a wire was put across the road, but the verdict was 'accidental death'.
Then a few months later her husband Thomas Morgan aged 56 died of cancer.
:'(
My mum only met her once when she was a child, but remembers her as being a very hard scary woman ...... its not surprising really.
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Mine I think was the death of Jeanie Green. Her death cert just states "Dead Body Found in Castle Loch went ?"
It's one of my "Please help to decipher" posts (linked below).
If it hadn't been for a random piece of luck when I was mooching through the library I would never have found the full story. The tragedy seemed to have touched more than the family. So much so a poem was written about the incident. Jeanie killed herself after she dropped a child in her charge and she was told the child died - which was untrue.
Poem:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,12962.15.html
Pam
:'(
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My GGGrandfather's siblings were by far the saddest in my tree.
First his elder brother died in the workhouse aged 10 of TB in 1887.
Then his younger sister when she was 8 in 1899 fell into a disused quarry that had been used as a manure pit, my gggrandfather was one of the first to be alerted but by the time he got there she had sunk, her body wasn't recovered, only one shoe. (years later one of his nephews bought the quarry and it is still in the family today)
Lastly his younger brother was killed in WW1 aged 21.
Sharon
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I feel saddest for my grgrangfathers daughters by his first marriage, Emily Jane and Maud Mary. Their mother Sarah Ann died of complications during childbirth in Jan 1876 in Sydney Australia, having lost one female child who died of convulsions at 10 months, 4 years earlier. In March 1876 the newborn George died and in Oct that same year another son William died of scarlet fever.
In November their father Robert took the two surviving girls Emily Jane and Maud Mary by ship back to England to be cared for and tutored by his sister Jane and her daughter Harriet in Devon. He then sailed back to his life in Australia.
In 1882 Maud Mary died of tuberculosis, Harriet also died in the same year. By 1880 aunt Jane died of tuberculosis when Emily Jane was 24 years.
From a newspaper advert in 1890 I know Emily Jane was trying to sell her aunts house in Devon. Then nothing, no marriage, not in the 1891 Census that I can find, and no death, I was hoping against all odds that she managed to survive and live a relatively happy life.
Then, what luck, 1901 Census, I found her aged 34, a certified hospital nurse in the employ of a clergyman and his family in Wiltshire. Oh frabjous day, Calloo Callay!
I have found so much fabulous background info in Newspaper archives, death notices, obituaries, bankruptcy notices, coronial inquiries, trade adverts, and town council reports and editorial - all giving me insight into the lives of my family members.
Happy searching
Sue
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There are a couple in my tree that I found particularly sad:
The first is a couple, Robert and Mary, who had 11 children between 1826 and 1846. Robert and 8 of the children are buried in 2 separate graves. Mary spent the final years of her life after Roberts death in the workhouse, where she died. She was buried alone in a council cemetery, with no stone to mark her grave.
The second is my gggp, John and Annie. They married in Aberystwyth in 1874 and had 3 children. In 1878 the youngest was born in South Wales. In 1879 Annie was a widow left to bring up 3 children aged between 1 and 4. The only family Annie had left was her mother-in-law back in Aberystwyth. I've not been able to trace where John died, hence no DC, no grave.
On searching the MIs recently I found one - no relation this time - from the early 1800s. A young mother of 22 and her 2 infant children (3 and 1) were killed while asleep when the wall of the neighbouring house collapsed and fell on them.
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This was my very first find. I came accross this sad event when I first started to search for my family.
"Holcombe Long ago" by the Rev. Henry Dowsett
"Tragedies" page 71/72
Richmael Smith lived at Middle Doe Farm westerly of Robin Hoods Well. She was sent out in a snow storm to borrow candles from a neighbouring homestead and got lost over Alden Ratchers towards Edgeworth.
Richmael lies buried in a Tottington Church Yard, date of burial 10th March 1837. :'(
This was my Father's Great Aunt and a true family story of the tragedy. :'( I have never found where she was buried.
Matty :'(
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;) ;)
This is a photo of St Anne's CofE Church, Tottington, Bury - could this be the graveyard mentioned ??
:) :) :)
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Hi Mobo,
Thankyou for the photo - it's lovely another to add to my collection.
The rev Henry Dowsett wrote two books from "Church Magazines". Also in the 1841 onwards Tottington Lower End coverd Holcombe. I have searched at the library on all Totting Church M I's but not found anything. Thanks for your help Mobo
Matty :)
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my sad death in the family is found here !
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,25326.0.html
:'(
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I have done some research into the previous occupants of my present home which is a cottage in Cornwall. My research has also included the cottages and farms nearby.
When I read Mobo's post about us remembering our forebears it reminded me of a sad tale about one of the occupants of our house.
Elizabeth Jane was born illegitimate in 1870 and was brought up by her mother's brother Philip and his wife Jane. Philip and Jane had no children of their own so I like to think that Elizabeth was a real gift to them and brought joy into their lives.
When Elizabeth was 23 she fell in love with the handsome blacksmith William who lived just along the lane from her ( in our cottage )
Elizabeth and William were married in the village church on December 23rd 1893, before long Elizabeth was expecting their first child. Because I'm an old romantic I like to believe that they were very happy and looking foward to the new arrival.
However in July 1894 Elizabeth dies of eclampsia. She has a lovely gravestone not far from the porch of the village church with the words ' In the midst of life we are in death'.
I wonder who payed for it ? Perhaps it was her aunt and uncle who loved her and could afford the cost.
Anyway each year on the anniversary of Elizabeth's death I lay some flowers on her grave for I wonder how many other people alive now know her sad story.
Sue
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:) :) :)
What a sad sad story Mr G.
As I know from personal experience, life is never fair at the best of times, but back then it was even more harsh.
Did you manage to find the lady's grave ?
;) ;) ;)
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Fascinating and very sad stories - but what on earth is a thread like this doing in a forum called the Lighter Side ......!!
Mine involve three children who died within three weeks of each other - all of scarletina - all the children wiped out at once, but luckily (for me!) my 2xgreat grandmother went on to have another ...!
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mine is my husband's grandmother's first husband who died in an accident at work less than a year after they were married and a month after the birth of their first child.
Sue
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And then of course there is the tragic story of my gt-gt-grandfather's second cousin Caroline Sherwood who for whatever reason (and now I'm sure her state of mind would have been properly looked into), strangled her 5-year-old daughter, also called Caroline, in Hove, East Sussex, in 1853.
Caroline was tried at Lewes and sentenced to death by hanging, fainting in Court when the sentence was announced.
However, thankfully, her death sentence was changed to transportation - though I still have not discovered what eventually happened to her.
On her daughter's death certificate is the sad entry under Cause of Death: "Wilful murder by her mother"...
Keith
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I sent this once but it vanished into cyberspace I guess ...
I did find a chuckle in this otherwise sad thread ... about the "handsome" cab driver, I hope he indeed was a looker! I thought it was spelled "hansom" ... ;)
We are indeed I think much more shocked by death these days in the western and european world ... I came across in my travels a list of those hanged (beginning with the famous highwayman) in London, many were men who abducted and killed small children, so nothing new in that although today we wonder "what the world is coming to". I do believe the solution was better in those days myself!
I have several old books of my gran's and my mom's ... all having to do with tragedy, one written in the late 1890's, my mother was given it in the 20's when she was small was "Lambs Safely Folded," a collection of little stores of children dying and going home to Jesus. The quote in the inside said to "Josey, and a bright and happy Christmas". My goodness.
Another happy note ... one book my gran was given was signed by her Aunt Ellen ... hmm, a new relative for me to find!
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Obviously, we all have sad or tragic incidents in our past...... my poor Gt-gt-grandmother, Leah Buggins,lost her husband Richard and two children, Rachel aged 4 & John Henry aged 4 months, within eight weeks. Richard & Rachel both died from T.B., John Henry after vaccination.
However, although she never remarried, Leah went on to have several more children, of whom at least two lived to adulthood!
Shumagh
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Mine so far is my Gt Gt grandparents Finton Lawlor or rather their 7 children.
Came over from Ireland in 1874 and took over the Stanley Arms in Widnes Lancs.
Finton wife Annie died in 1887 leaving him with 9 children to look after and he died just 2 years later !
All the children lost both their parents in the space of 2 years. they were all split up being sent all over the country to live with Aunts and Uncles.
How sad is that ? :o :'(
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hi early bird...my grt grandmother lost four children in a matter of 5 weeks to scarlet fever she also lost an infant the year before and a baby the following year after losing the four.... god love her she must have had a broken heart poor woman life was hard then wasn't it?..... cheers nenny4
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Its so tragic isn't it. It makes me marvel that they kept going really. I know I couldn't have coped. When I moan and groan about how tough life is I remember how tough others have it and realise how fortunate I am
I really support the current `abolish poverty' movement. If we spent all our arms money on health, education, housing ,etc then we wouldn't have half the problems we have today. ::)
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i live in Australia was back to the old country just over two years ago and was saddened by the homeless and yes poor been here forty years come July yes we have them here too but i expect we don't see as much because the country is so vast....... nenny4 P.S..... I'm with you in the poverty thing..cheers
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For me the saddest death was my Dad's two oldest brothers who both drowned when they were playing on a frozen pond and the ice broke. It happened in January 1897 when they were 13 and 11 years old.
The only thing that makes me feel better about it is that my Dad and his other 2 brothers managed to survive WWI although they were all in the armed forces. All their male cousins were killed. So at least my grandparents were spared losing any more of their children.
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My partner's great grandfather was run over by a humber (big old car) whilst having a wee at the side of the road. :o
Oh sorry, you said sad ;D
byron
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There are so many. Grandfather killed WWI leaving 3 children under 9. Great grandfathers son dieing from diphtheria age 5. His wife dieing in a mental institution. But the worst is not knowing what happened. An aunt went Christmas shopping in 1922 & never returned. Police investigation searching Canada & Ireland proved fruitless.
Now there is a topic worth discussion - 'Your Family Mystery'.
J.A.M.
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I have come across a family where there were thirteen children born, but all had died by the age of ten.
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Hi ,
The saddest death in my tree is my Greatgrandmother Fanny Illman.She died in child birth in 1883 giving birth to my Grandmother Lena Elizabeth Illman.Her husband Richard married within a year!Needed someone to look after all the children!
My Grandmother now Lena Marsh lived to 1978 aged 94 when she died.
Kind Regards Jean.x
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The story about the rundown (hard not to chuckle) made me think of my husband's great grandmother. She was a real rebel in her day. She was mostly blind in her 90's and in a wheelchair when she was placed in a home. She got away many times, and was killed at the bottom of hill in front of the home, struck by a vehicle, but by God she died free! Had she had one of those newfangled chairs with batteries and brakes she'd be still on her way!
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One of the saddest deaths in my tree,would probably have to be my great great uncle,who after arriving in New Zealand from Ireland was working as a farm labourer,he went out drinking one night,and having one to many,lay down on a railway track,and was run over by a local freight train. :-[
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I have to echo what a lot of people have said - many sad instances but the one that strikes me as the saddest is for my GG Grandfather who's death certificate simply states cause of death as being "Exhaustion". :(
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I have two SAD deaths in my Family, they both
died as children.
My Maternal Grandfathers relation was a little girl
who died of digitalis poisoning (foxgloves)
My Maternal Grandmothers auntie died as a little
girl from drinking bleach.
Jinks
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:'(
I have a male relative who ignited his night clothing on an open coal fire and died of bilateral pyelonephritis (infection of the pelvis and both kidneys) associated with burns on his back.
Jane
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:(
My saddest one so far is a couple having in total 12 children. 2 died in 1844, another 3 in 1852 (aged 6,4,2). Then they lost a son before his first birthday in 1860. What a tragic life! Going to the library next week to view death register. Would like to kno wwhat happened to this poor family!
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It would have to be the death of William Stewart in Peterborough Ontario back in 1864. He was on a canoe outing that was meant to be a bit of a pleasant late summer picnic with his wife Louise McNabb, his 12 year old son Tom and his brother in law Robert McNabb. While reaching for his gun to take a shot at a bird, he managed to shoot himself near the elbow. An ineffective tourniquet and the effort of trying to paddle home combined, and he died the next day.
Can you imagine how frantic his wife and son must have been? Just awful. She was left a widow at 31 with seven children.
Mary G.
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My gt-gt-grandfather's brother William living in Sharnbrook, Beds had a fine family of 7 children on 1871 census, sharing a small cottage in Coffle End. By end of September, five had died by Typhoid Fever. First young 9 yr old William was buried 5 August; then five yr old sister Annie on 27 August; four days later on 1 Sept 3 yr old John, next 7 yr old Charles on 12 Sept, & lastly Samuel less than 1 year, buried on 23 Sept.
Their story is told in more detail in Autumn 1984 edition of Bedfordshire Magazine
John P
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It is a weird thing this family tree stuff... you realise what a tough life our ancestors had hardly any medicine and what was probably given would kill you anyway.
My gg grandmother died giving birth to her 10th child aged 41, soon after the whole family was split up many of them emigrating to Canada, USA and Australia the youngest 3 girls were put into a Convent aged 2, 4 & 11. How would kids cope with that now????
Her father in law died of Cancer of the face (particularly unpleasant) he had suffered from it for 2 years. Two of his daughters died aged 30 ish one from TB and 6 months later the other from Morbis Cordis (heart disease I beleive). He and his wife had 11 children 10 of which I know survived into adult hood but goodness how many were lost on the way.
I agree death was more accepted then but still upsetting I suppose folk accepted short life expectancy as was infant mortality rate. We just think everything can be cured today and the ravages of time held back!!
Cal
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:D :D
The thing I find most upsetting is, at the time, these same poor people were indoctrinated with the belief that they lived in the best country in world, and so were more than happy to trot off to war whenever they were bid, just to expeience even worse horrors.
On a lighter note John, and a bit of a concidence, on the 1881 Census, an ancestor of mine, one Joseph MORRIS, b. 1799 in Sharnbrook, was living in 'Coffle End' as a lodger in the house of Elizabeth Goodship (Lacemaker) - funny eh ??
:D :D
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Mine has got to be my Gt Grandfather Albert Littlewood
He was a coal miner working at Treeton nr Rotherham and living with his large family in a small house in Attercliffe Sheffield.
1926 the year of the General Strike the miners stayed out for 10 months and in September of that year Albert went searching for work on outcrops (coal which appears on farmers fields) so he could feed his family
The next day his body was found mutilated on a railway line. A train had hit him killing him instantly. An open verdict was recorded at the subsequent inquest.
thanks
steve
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My saddest death to date is a lady whose husband left her with six children and one on the way. She could not cope with the thought of another mouth to feed so had a back street termination.
Sadly, she died in hospital following complications. She was only 36.
Her sister had a rough time too, her husband was killed by a landslide aged 23. She did the exact opposite and went on to have another 5 children, although no fathers are named on the birth certs ;D
Steph.
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:( :( :(
My gt. grandmother ELIZA EDGSON, born 1876 in Leics, died 1941 in Lancs. She married WILLIAM JOHN MORRIS in 1893 and they had four children between 1894 & 1901, then William died in 1909 (age 38) of typhoid fever.
She then had an illegitimate child in 1911 who she called George Morris, but he sadly drowned in 1920 in the Bury & Bolton Canal. The Coroner's Report makes pitiful reading.
:( :( :(
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My sad story is here Still very sad !! :'( :'(
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,25326.0.html
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If we spent all our arms money on health, education, housing ,etc then we wouldn't have half the problems we have today. ::)
My great grandparents Thomas Richardson Lunt and Margaret Anne Kent didn't marry until they were 31 years old in December, 1875 and had their first son, my grandfather William Richardson Lunt in August, 1876.
Thomas died in July 1877 of Smallpox. Their daughter Mary Ellen was born in December, 1877 so Thomas never saw her and she died in September 1878 of Marasmus which is progressive wasting. I suppose her poor mother wasn't getting enough and proper food herself to be able to feed the baby.
I still haven't found young William in the 1881 census, family stories say he was left with a relative, but nobody knows who, and I found his mother working as a nurse to earn money to keep the child - in actual fact family stories say she was a "wet nurse", which is what gave me the clue that there had been the second child Mary Ellen.
Mary
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Probably that of my great grandfather who contracted scarlet fever and died at the age of 23 ..... my grandfather wasn't born until 4 months after his fathers death.
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My great grandmother had 16 children of whom only 5 lived long enough to marry The rest died of TB. Of the 5 who married one died in childbirth, one lost her husband in 1918 and another had no children. The poor woman had 16 children but only 5 grandchildren.
While she was losing children in their teens in the 1890s she also lost her husband(age 42) to peritonitus(sp?) and gave birth to her last child 6 months later. This last child also died of TB age 13.
This remarkable woman lived until she was 81.
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My gt grandfather must be the saddest in my tree.
His wife died of cancer, but then he met someone else and remarried only for her to run away taking everthing in the house with her. Then depression followed and he walked onto a train track in front of a train. He died of multiple injuries.
Best wishes
Pauline
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My grandparents told me stories of various sad deaths in our family that I have since been able to confirm. My maternal gg grandparents lost 2 children in a year - in 1890 aged 7 one from rheumatic fever and the second and boy aged 13 after being thrown from a cart and hitting his head on a milestone died from meningitis - was interested to see he died at home 4 days after the accident (have yet to read a coroners report but seems strange these days to think of somoeone having that sort of accident not being in hospital) another ancestor which I cant remember unfortunately - my grandfather told me used to wear long flowing skirts and had a little dog who used to hide in the skirts - she tripped over the dog going down stairs carrying a gaslamp and died of her burns (yet to find this mystery woman)
The saddest deaths have to be my grandmother going out one day in 1941 and seeing a list of casualties from a recent blitz reading it and seeing 8 members of her family - two seperate incidents and three generations wiped out in one night - despite the awful events in London recently I still feel lucky to be living now - not sure how my generation would have coped in the war compared to my grandparents - nikki
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I had been told that my grandfather was one of six sons. He used to talk about all of his brothers even though he outlived most of them by many, many years.
When I saw the 1901 census, I was surprised to find that he was actually one of 7 sons. I had never heard him mention Edward. This naturally immediately aroused my suspicions and I went all out to find out everything I could about Edward.
Edward was 6 years old in 1901 living with all his brothers and his parents. He died at the age of 20 in the workhouse infirmary. His cause of death was given as "imbecile and epileptic". I felt really sad, thinking about this boy who was probably seen as an embarrassment to his family, being sent away from them, perhaps at quite a young age, and dying in the workhouse infirmary.
Wotty.
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I think prior generations survived terrible losses because they had no other choice - it was one foot in front of the other. Its not a matter of being more accepting of death or less affected by it, although they certainly would have had their heads around the notion that death at any age was a real possibility. Today, in the west, we're shocked and affronted when anyone under the age of 75 dies.
I look at my family tree, and the number of children's deaths is so startling to modern sensibilities - and multiple deaths within the same family within short time frames common, due to outbreaks of illness - I have several examples where two or three children died within a few weeks. I also have many ancestors who had multiple marriages due to the deaths of their spouses. New world colonists in particular remarried fairly quickly because they NEEDED a new spouse for economic and domestic survival - and doubtless they couldn't afford to be too picky among the limited candidates available within geographic range. I do think they had more practical expectations about what marriage involved, and likely did not expect their spouse to be their soul mate, best friend and favourite leisure companion.
I have no doubt that parents loved their children every bit as much 200 years ago as we do today, and just as destroyed by their loss - but they had less time to indulge in emotional collapse. After all, if you have a half dozen other children and a home and farm to keep going (with no labour saving devices and little in the way of store bought clothing or food etc.)....you'd have to get up and get on with it, or everyone's survival would be at stake.
No wonder so many clung to their religious faith for comfort and hope of a better world beyond this one.
Mary
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How's this for a double whammy...
My GG Grandfather was killed by a train - he ran across the track to avoid one train but was hit by one going the other way.
A few years later his widow accidentally set her apron on fire. She ran into the street, causing the flames to engulf her and died in hospital shortly after! We have a copy of a newspaper from the time with details of the incident!
SIM
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There are a number of deaths that I have found sad in my family tree. There have been falling downs in elevator shafts and falling head first into the mud while well digging but I think the most tragic is the story of my grandfather's brother. Back in the teens of the 20th C. his family was headed off in their car, mother holding her little baby Freddy in her arms. While nearing train tracks the car was jolted and baby Freddy flew from mother's arms on to the train tracks. A train was actually coming! Before they could reach the baby, he was crushed by the train. *sigh* Tragic! :o I guess my great grandmother was inconsolible because my grandfather was born a little while later, christened by the same name and apparently spoiled rotten as a baby (which was something since they were apparently very poor).
Creatrix N
Oooh.. I just looked at the above entry and didn't even realize there was another train tragedy until now!
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Oh my - thats awful!
Perhaps indicative of why child safety seats are so important!
There do seem to be a lot of train accidents though... Think I'll steer clear of the tracks for a while...
SIM
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My saddest was from my g-grandparents in 1908. Baby Mary died from "Prematurity (6 months)" She lived for two days. She was their first. :-[
This same couple lost a baby boy born and died in 1910, too. Cause of death unknown, as I haven't found a death certificate yet.
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My grandfather's eldest brother joined up in 1915 and was discharged in 1916 due to sickness. I thought he had had a lucky escape.
Then by chance I found him on the Commonwealth War Graves site. Obviously he had joined up again, probably unable to stand the people asking "Why are you not fighting for King and Country?". He died four weeks after the armistice was signed.
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Hi
My 3xGreat Grandfather Matthew CRANSTON dislocated his shoulder whilst at work on his boat on the River Tyne. He was taken to hospital in Newcastle after seeing a 'Bonesetter' for several weeks.
The hospital doctor decided to 'operate' and it turned out that he tried to 'put the bone right'. The force in which he and his other medical attendees did this, caused a swelling which indicated a blood clot, due to the force of their actions and a burst blood vessel. At this time, my ancestor was given 'chloroform'.
He died a couple of days later, aged 58.
At the inquest, the doctor said that 'the chloroform had nothing to do with death'
but I wonder........
Trini.
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Hi all,
Mt great great grandad John Loveday was gored to death by a bull. Burial rcords say that he died in hospital but i don't know whether it was of his injuries or a subsequent infection?
It's very sad. Lots of infant deaths too.
Caz
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My Great Grand Aunt came to something of a nasty end. No OSH (occupational safety and health) in those days
Paisley Daily Express dated 8th Sept 1891
"A distressing fatality occured at the works of Messrs J&P Coats Ltd at Ferguslie shortly before 3 oclock yesterday afternoon. Three of the female workers in the mill were hurrying to resume their duties, when one of them, Robina Townsend, stopped about 40 yards from the door at No. 9 Thread store. ....her companions went on and stepped into a hoist worked by hydrolics, to be taken to a higher flat. Townsend arrived when the hoist was in motion...with the result that she was knocked down by the descending guard. Her head was pressed with considerable force between the guard and the floor...and the skull was fearfully crushed and life was extinct....Sincere sympathy is everywhere expressed with the mother of the deceased woman, a widow, who is thus deprived of her sole support...."
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Oh how awful, such a lot of very sad stories.
:'(
What a lot of sadness our ancestors had to go through.
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I have lots of deaths in infancy and they all sadden me but some of the saddest are
My Great Aunt Beth who drowned in the dolly tub aged 3 in 1910 and was found by my Grandfather. My Great Uncle Samuel who was killed in the 1st WW aged 19. Four cousins dying in the 1st WW - three from the same family and one relative who lost both his wife and two young daughters in the space of 5 years
My one Great Uncle also lost his only son in the 2nd WW and his marriage didn't seem to survive the loss. I know he lived with his housekeeper in later years which was a bit of a scandal at the time but I'm guessing this was because he never divorced his first wife
My Great Aunt Connie drank herself to death after he husband dropped dead by the railway tracks of a heart attack (the dog was still sat by his side when they found him the next morning) and then her only child died of illness in his teens
My GGGrandad died on Christmas Eve 1873 of Pluro Pneumonia leaving his wife with 7 young children. Christmas is alway hard when you have lost someone but that must have been devastating
Willow x
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I think that the saddest death in my family is the death of my grandmother’s cousin, Arthur. Arthur was the son of missionaries in Micronesia and he and his wife Margaret continued in that line of work until they retired to California. They did not give up good works after their retirement, though. They visited and helped abandoned and friendless inmates in the California prisons. One of the prisoners they undertook to help was a woman serving a lengthy term for duping and murdering a man in order to take possession of his property. Her name was Louise Peete. When Louise was finally released from prison, Arthur and Margaret took her in. By this time Arthur was senile and somewhat addled. Louise had him declared insane and confined to a state mental hospital; she told the hospital authorities that Arthur’s only sister had fallen out with him and did not wish to see him. Then she murdered Margaret and took control of their property. Arthur died alone and forgotten in the asylum, wondering why his wife and sister never came. Louise died in the electric chair, the last woman executed in California.
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Erato :o That poor man, how awful, to be taken advantage of and secreted away like that, thank goodness he was senile at least, and may not have been fully aware of his very sad situation :'(
Just reading some of the other stories confirms my theory that our ancestors were made of stern stuff. For most of them life was pretty tough. It makes me proud, as well as sad.
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Erato,
What a terrible terrible story. I Googled and found many references - including a photo of the gravestone of poor Arthur and Margaret. Not to mention sites which say that Louise Peete (said to be a refined and educated woman; they also say she died in the gas chamber) was actually a serial killer who had perpetrated half-a-dozen murders. A post like yours certainly stops one in one's tracks and makes one ponder along so many lines like prison, rehabilitation, human nature, good works, etc, etc. Though perhaps there is, at least, comfort in the fact that the murderer was not part of your own heritage.
I know that one must be prepared for whatever one finds on one's family tree - and sometimes I complain about my own oh-so-boring ancestors - but I'm sure there are people who sometimes wish they had never begun their research. Two cases I know (I hope I recall them correctly) are a person whose Ggpa (quite a famous professional in his own city and on day leave from a mental facility) murdered - with extraordinary violence - the person's Ggma; and another where a person traced his/her distant ancestor to the issue of a case of incest where it was the very young violated daughter who was blamed and imprisoned while the widowed father who was responsible went scot-free.
JAP
PS: Erato, what a violent connexion for a poster whose name is, as I recall, that of a gentle poetic muse and/or an inoffensive tiny gastropod.
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Our family, as far as I have been able to determine, has been noncriminal with the exception of a husband and wife team of blasphemers in early New England. Joane Andrews was "convented" before authority in 1666 in Saco (Maine) for "abusing of Mrs. Lockwood" and her punishment was 10 lashes at the whipping post. Her husband John Andrews was convicted for "swearing by the blood of Christ that he was above the heavens and stars, at which time said Andrews did seem to have drunke too much and did call the witnesses doggs, toads, and foul birds."
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The saddest death in my tree was my G x 3 grandmother who died of "childbed" shortly after giving birth to an illegitimate daughter ( my Gx2 grandmother...............even sadder is the fact that not only does "illegitimate" appear on my Gx2 grandmothers birth certificate but also on her marriage and her death certificate.
I think this fact was "buried" until the family started to trace the tree and obtained BD&M certificates a few years ago.
They were unforgiving in the 1800's............!
Sue
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probably find worse as I go along, but for now - my gt.uncle who was unfortunate to live at a time when 'special needs' was called by the most offensive of terms, died a few months after his mother's death, apparently of "broken heart" - dont think that will be on his death cert. though!!!!!!!
caroline :)
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Our family, as far as I have been able to determine, has been noncriminal with the exception of a husband and wife team of blasphemers in early New England. Joane Andrews was "convented" before authority in 1666 in Saco (Maine) for "abusing of Mrs. Lockwood" and her punishment was 10 lashes at the whipping post. Her husband John Andrews was convicted for "swearing by the blood of Christ that he was above the heavens and stars, at which time said Andrews did seem to have drunke too much and did call the witnesses doggs, toads, and foul birds."
Lol just shows how far swear words have developed - or was the court clerk being diplomatic?
Willow x
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I can't pin down a single "saddest" death, but I think the person on my tree who had the most tragic time was my great-grandmother.
She had two daughters die before their fifth birthdays within the space of a few months of each other, and then less than a year later her husband died, leaving her with two toddlers and my newborn grandmother. Before my grandmother had celebrated her first birthday, both of her sisters were also dead, one in a fire which my grandmother thinks she can remember.
To lose a husband or a daughter would be bad enough, but to lose 4 daughters AND her husband within the space of two years must have driven her into a breakdown. We have an undated letter which is from nurses who cared for her and had a collection for her, and the only reason I could think for this collection was to help her recover after this.
Surprisingly, my grandmother was such a sickly child that she too was not expected to survive, but has managed to make it to 91 without too much effort!
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..not quite in my tree but I just came over it - while looking through Canongate Burials (which have age, cause of death and rellos) for my ancestor Robert NELSON/NEILSON I found 2 twin brothers NEILSON who died of Scarlet fever aged ~5 within a month or tewo of each other.
Cas
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The saddest two deaths in my tree were two of my great x 3 grandparents who died within 3 years of each other. One, Jean Henri Batiste, a builder, died when an arch he was demolishing collapsed on him in 1860 - the other, Pierre Falla, a quarryman, was crushed under a landslide at the quarry where he worked in 1863.
Really nasty coincidence !!
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Not an individual's death but feel very sad about this family - my husband's 3x great uncle.
Edward was the first child to die, age 1, in July 1856.
Henry, age 7, died in April 1858 and was put in the same grave as Edward.
Emily, age 8, died in Feb 1861.
Harry, age 4, and Emma, the mother, age 40, died in Nov 1863 and were buried together.
The family's father, James, died in Dec 1865 (of a broken heart, I should think).
In nine years the whole family, except for one daughter, Eliza, was gone. She was eight when orphaned and was taken in by a childless aunt and uncle.
Monica
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I think mine would have to be the families who lost children to poisoning in outback Australia.
One who lost two children under 5 when they ate fermented watermelon juice ( their father was a publican) and another who died after drinking the saddle dressing, aged 2 her father was a saddler , the same family lost a son when a tree fell on him.
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dhowse, those stories are so sad :'(
I can't get over the idea of drinking fermented watermelon juice though - having inadvertently eaten off watermelon myself, it sounds disgusting!
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I have just come across one where during WW1 a woman's husband and brother and brother-in-law were killed, she was left with four children under six to raise on her own poor dear.
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I have twin brothers born in 1904 - one died at age 11 months and the other died when he was 4.
In the same family 2 sons were killed in action during WW1 within 2 weeks of each other and 2 daughters died aged 14 and 25. Only my granny (their sister) survived to old age.
Also, my x3 great granny (different family) is described as a pauper lunatic patient when she died in Banffshire Asylum
Elaine
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I have two I can think of. The first was my grandmother who was knocked down by a lorry on 23rd December while out buying bits for Christmas. The saddest bit about it was my father passed by on a bus as the body was covered and remarked to the man next to him what a terrible thing to have happened so close to the holiday, only when he arrived at his parents house did he find out it was his mother.
The other is my uncle. He had started work at a gummed paper factory in Camberwell and was killed in a lift accident aged 15. According to the newspaper report, he must have climbed up to look over the lift door and accidently tripped the lever. The foreman apparently told the inquest that he had warned the youngster not to operate the lift by himself, but he hadn't listened. I personally think it was easier for him to blame the dead boy than admit he told him to use it, but then I'm biased.
Sandie
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Like most here, there are so many sad passings to choose from but this one is the event I automatically think of when I think "tragic". It made the local paper (probably the most exciting thing to happen there all year) and here is the article:
TWO CHILDREN DROWNED - An utter gloom was cast on our community last Thursday [27 Dec 1895] when the information passed from one to another that two bright children, well known to all, were drowned. It appears tiny Ada (about 11 years) and Minnie (about 8 years) [actually they were 10 and 6], daughters of Mr. John McKay, of lower Ulmarra, went to the river about 4pm, close to their dwelling, to have a bath. At this place there is a shelf projecting a little distance into the river, and then abruptly breaks into a perpendicular wall. Minnie, it is said by another little girl who was there, got over the edgeof this ledge, and was immediately out of her depth. It is believed Ada, in tryign to help her sister, was also pulled into deep water. The unfortunate and much-to-be-pitied mother came on the bank just in time to see the head of one dsappearing. Mrs. McKay summoned her husband from the field by her shrieks, but he, after futile endeavours to recover the bodies, sent to the police...who went with the grapnels, and after about two hours dragging recovered both the bodies...The deeply stricken mother is almost bereft of reason, and the father almost breaks down under the affliction. It was a sore blow to a happy family...
They went on to have more children, but soon moved back to Sydney after only about 5 years in Ulmarra. :'( :'( :'(
Prue
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Out of all my relatives and ancestors, I guess I'd have to say my da. For all his faults and personal problems in his life, I loved him so very much. He was my hero, for honestly unknown reasons. He taught me about nature, respect of wildlife, surviving in the worst of conditions, and hanging on.
I was a literal basket case the night he passed and I was the last one to talk to him at the hospital and the last one he spoke to, and I held his hand as he passed.
I can barely remember his funeral and wake, and have only vague memories of being carried from the gravesite by my husband and an uncle. It's been 25 years, and the tears still come every time I see his face. And I have no memories at all of the next 6 months of my life, it's all a blank to me.
After that, I guess it would be my grandda Frank Quinn, who died before I was born.
Patty
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The saddest death in my family was, I believe, my great grandmother. She had 23 children and suffered from asthma.
From what we know 4 of her sons were away in WW1. One died and one was listed as 'missing, presumed dead'.
This missing son arrived home unannounced about one month after the end of WW1. It was such a shock to his mother that she suffered a massive asthma attack and died as a result, aged 58
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Cotswolder what a sad story :'(
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I guess the saddest was my great-uncle's death in 1899, if I have the year right - in Burnley, Lancs. He was about 15, and drowned trying to save a younger boy's life (he also died).
My great-uncle's name was David Dixon. His mother had died of pneumonia soon after he was born. He had only one sibling, my grandmother, Lily.
Lily's father Elijah married again a few years after David's drowning, but he had no other children.
Diana.
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the saddest in my family tree was one of our relatives drowned in the canal, & they found her 9month old baby still alive alone on the riverbank, don't know if it was suicide or she slipped in, as they were barge people.
moira
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I think mine would be my G Grandads in WW1 - he served all the way through and then died two months before the war ended-absolutely tragic - he left four young children who were then sent to orphanges-so they didn't know how to raise a well balanced family - the tragedy goes on and on.
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Mine is my great uncle. He died flying a biplane in WW1, on his first raid, on the last mission the squadron ever flew. six weeks before the Armistice in 1918. He was 23, just married, and he had only joined the RAF in April that year having been in the Territorials for the rest of the war. He left no children and his surname died with him as he was his parents' only son.
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Headbanger, that's so tragic :'( :'( :'( What heroes those early flyers were though.
Go on then, tell us his name, so it's not gone anymore :)
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Prue
It was Cecil R G Abrahams, he is the Cecil with the lovely smile that you liked in the photo I posted. I am putting together a tribute to him on my website, which is currently under construction, so I'll be letting people know when it's ready. I only found out about the circumstances of his death the day before yesterday, and it choked me up now, in 2005. I just can't imagine what it was like in 1918, for his parents and his young wife.
Thanks, Veron
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There were a tragice series of deaths in 1940
There were four people living in the house
Ann Jackson nee Lee,
Her daughter from second marriage Annie Swindells nee Jackson
Annie's husband Noah Swindells
Noah and Annie's son Edward aged 15
Firstly, Ann Jackson died - she was about 92 - I believe it was acute bronchitis
Feb 1940
Then Edward died aged 15 when a bomb dropped on Shepperton Studios 21 Oct 1940
Two 15 year old boys were the only casualties
Then Noah became ill with appendicitis - it was ermoved, he should have recovered, but he died- it was said he's lost the will to live -This was Nov 1940
Bob
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Thanks for posting details of Cecil, Veron - his photo definitely caught people's imagination didn't it! I look forward to reading about him on your website sometime soon :)
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The saddest death in my family was, I believe, my great grandmother. She had 23 children and suffered from asthma.
From what we know 4 of her sons were away in WW1. One died and one was listed as 'missing, presumed dead'.
This missing son arrived home unannounced about one month after the end of WW1. It was such a shock to his mother that she suffered a massive asthma attack and died as a result, aged 58
Dear Cotswolder,
What a sad sad story about a great lady.
Have you noticed the thread about the biggest family? Your dear Great Gran surely must be a (or the) top contender.
Best regards,
JAP
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This one is a bit of a cheat because it isn't exactly in my family tree......My uncle was a prisoner of war in Taiwan, in the notorious Kinkeseki camp. Sadly, like so many, he died of beri-beri, but there were some who managed somehow to survive the terrible conditions until the end of the war.
Once the Japanese had surrendered, it took some time to get relief to the remaining prisoners, but at last American planes arrived with desperately needed food and medical supplies, which were dropped from the air. Yes, you've guessed it – several starving prisoners of war were actually crushed to death by the Red Cross crates that landed. Apparently the planes were flying too low for the crates' parachutes to open properly.
What a terrrible irony, to survive the horrors they had come through only to be killed like that.
Jane
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Dear Cotswolder,
What a sad sad story about a great lady.
Have you noticed the thread about the biggest family? Your dear Great Gran surely must be a (or the) top contender.
Best regards,
JAP
JAP
I found a thread about the largest number of Grandchildren. Is this the one you meant ?
Bruce
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She had 23 children
Wow that will take a bit of beating :o :o :o
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Should some one on the Board s Research theses sad Deaths and Work out the saddest one of all ??
And post it as a Christmas Eve Special ::) ;D
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Difficult one there Graceland.
While I have no objections.
It abit lke a bonny baby contest. ( In opposite)
Ever one is the saddest to that particular person.
Jinks
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Like many of you I am unable to think of only one saddest death, but I think my nan had the most saddest losses in her lifetime.
My nan Edith Amelia & her twin sister Nancy Loraine were born in June 1915 (4th & 5th of 11 children). Nancy died of blood poisoning after getting a lung infection in August 1918 (possibly due to the 'Flu epidemic?)while her father was away in the RAF. I remember my nan telling me her twin had died because they couldn't afford a doctor.
Edith's eldest sister Elizabeth got married in 1933 and had a daughter. Soon after Elizabeth died in a fall down the stairs. Her mother brought up the child as her own - my dad's "Aunty" . At about the same time my nan's youngest sister was born. Rose was premature and only lived one hour.
Fast forward to September 1965 when my nan lost her youngest son. My Uncle Richard died with two other lads in a car accident 3 days before his 18th birthday.
I was born just a few months later...I can only hope that as most babies do, my arrival brought some happiness back into my nan's life :D
Debbie :'(
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My response, if it wasn't so sad, might be funny. (The border between tears of sadness and tears of joy is often narrow).
Catherine Jones, my great great grandmother, promised her brother Isaac, on his deathbed, that if she should ever have a son she would name him Isaac after him, so that his name would live on after his death.
Catherine had a son who she duly named Isaac. Unfortunately Isaac died nine months after he was born, so the name wouldn't live on through him. A second son named Isaac also died in infancy, and a third son was born also baptised Isaac.
Isaac #3 was desperately ill with little hope of his survival when Catherine's fourth son was born. Having promised her departed brother a son who would keep his name alive, she named the fourth son Isaac (in anticipation of Isaac #3's death).
Against the odds Isaac #3 survived. So there were now two living son's called Isaac in the family.
Isaac #4 was the one who carried my great granduncle's name. I don't remember him, but I do have a slight recollection of Isaac #3 – who I knew as a child as Hen dewyrth (Old Uncle) David.
The sadness of keeping a deathbed promise through the death of two children, and the desperation to keep that promise so much, that one anticipates the death of a living child is heart wrenching.
But, having said that, at a distance, there is a humorous irony in the story too.
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The half-sister I wasn't privileged to know ............
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My half bro. John born 1 May died 20 the May 1941, as a result of the Blitz.
Pat
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My great grandmother died when she was 21 yrs old, that was six days after giving birth to my grandfather. She died of puerpal fever. She would be one of the most important people I would ever wish to meet.
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The two that have really struck me are the deaths of children, both from the same family line who are both called Grace Ella but were a generation apart.
The first Grace Ella was the apple of her grandma's eye and she took the new baby round the village showing her off. As it turns out there was whooping cough (i think) going round the village at the time and she died of the illness not long after.
The second Grace Ella at 15 years old fell down the steps of Wansford village shop and caught TB. She died of her illness too.
I always find the death of children sad though, i dont like coming across the records when i'm searching the death details from the parish record. :'(
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:-[
GGG Grandmother died of Flooding! Girls........... she had just given birth! baby died year later!...........what a way to go!..........
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:-[
GGG Grandmother died of Flooding! Girls........... she had just given birth! baby died year later!...........what a way to go!..........
Forgive my ignorance sue, but what is Flooding? Or do I not want to know?!
Prue
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Prue
Dont think you want to know! just let your imagination go!...........thank God for National Blood Transfusion today...........
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Oh! :o
I thought that might have been the case. Poor ggggranny. I have a puerpural fever death in my tree - she suffered for a month before she died :'( Those women were made of stern stuff.
P
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My grandmother's father died from tuberculosis when she was 4. Her mother died from a type of kidney disease when she was 6. She was left with one sister who was 10 years older. Three other siblings also died - a baby girl from breathing difficulties before she was a month old and twin brothers - I can't find out how or when they died.
Her mother's brother came to live with the two girls after their mother died. In that same year they all contracted the flu. The girls got over it but he died.
Their aunt Agnes then came to live with them. She died within a couple of years from heart disease. My grandmother, still a young teenager, reported how her aunt must have died in her sleep and that she (my grandmother) tried to wake her up in the morning but she wouldn't stir.
This all happened in Northern Ireland in the early part of the 1900s. The two girls had no one left by this stage and they upped and emigrated to Australia as orphans who immediately went to work in a linen factory in Sydney.
What amazes me is that my grandmother, despite knowing all this death, was such a lovely, happy, generous, contented and generally sane person? :'(
Kath
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How sad all these tales are. I have only just started to research my family history, so at the moment the only one I can think of is my Gt.Gt. Grandmother Elizabeth Toghill who died at the age of 42 after just giving birth to twins, a girl who died with the mother and a boy Jesse who survived, leaving her husband Charles to bring up a family of 14 aged from 21 down to the new baby. Luckily the older girls were able to help. Charles died in 1908 aged 58. My Gt. Grandmother was the 4th child in the family and outlived all the rest to die of old age in 1977 aged 97. I sometimes wish I had a time machine to go back and see how they all coped in a small house with all those children. :'(
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1789 May-02 King Mary 6 Smallpox
1789 May-04 King John Labourer Smallpox
1789 May-14 King Sally 11 Smallpox
1789 Jun-17 King Jane Mortification This woman, the mother
mentioned above, was found dead in bed,
having previously complained very little;
her death may be attributed to the effects
of the Smallpox, brought on or assisted
by grief for her recent loss.
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There are so many, but this has to be the worst I think:
According to a newspaper report in 1850, my grt grt grt Aunts 24 yr old daughter Mary, having felt unwell while attending a ball at her home, went upstairs carrying a lighted candle, fainted & dropped it on her gown which was made of lace, & was instantly enveloped in flames.
She died four days later.
Minn
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my GGGG grandmother was buried on the same day that her daughter was christened. The baby then died later that month. One can only imagine what that family must have been going through at the time.
Linmey.
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It's seems to have been pretty rare for the baby to survive where a mother died either during or shortly after childbirth. I suppose there was no milk formula in those days or handy sterilising fluid.
My 5XG Grandmother was also Christened on the day her mother was buried - at Fewston in 1706. And the sad thing is that her father was the Vicar of Fewston so presumably conducted both ceremonies. He wrote a very touching tribute to his wife in the Parish Register.
Fortunately my ancestor did survive and lived until she was 70. She was the only child of a rather elderly father so I'd love to know who cared for her.
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hi saar3,
Well ,I think that one beats mine because as you say, I am sure the vicar would have had to conduct the funeral himself.
I guess if an infant was premature or difficult to feed it would not have stood a chance. Wet nurses probably cost money.
I know when I looked at the burial index there were so many babies that didnt make it to the first year in one family. No wonder the women died so young. I was shocked really because although we know infant mortality was high then, when its your own family you are looking into it really brings it home to you. Regards Linmey.
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I have a few sad deaths (obviously all are sad, but these more than most).
On one side, there are a pair of twins that in the 1871 Census were only one week old, and were un-named. Both of them died within the space of the next two years (I found out that their parents later called them William and Grace).
My great-uncle Freddie died at the age of six, sliding down a stair banister; he hit his head on a fire guard that was at the bottom of the stair case.
My great-great grandfather died in the same year as his baby daughter; we have reason to believe that they were involved in an accident.
It's all quite unbearable to think about! :(
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I have recently found a newspaper article about the death & inquest of my grandmother's sister.
In 1912 my grandma was 10, her sister Gladys was 9. Gladys went out one Saturday morning and slipped in the street on some orange peel and badly bruised her leg......on the following Tuesday the doctor was called because she had a fever....he recommended a 'poultice'...but poor little Gladys got no better and the doctor was re-called the following day - she died in his presence !
Their father, Percival Hunter Dixon, it is said. never got over her death & died himself two years later, aged 33. They are buried together in Morley cemetery.
My grandma & her younger sister, Constance both lived into their 90's.
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I have two sad ones in my family ,my grandfather worked in the mines ,he had 4 children born within four years and he got killed underground when the youngest was three months old ,and my nan had to bring them up on her own,the second death was my dads ,the night he died my brothers only child was born ,they had been trying 13 years for a child ,my nephew was born quarter to nine in the evening and my father died at quarter to ten,its as if they passed one another one coming into the world ,the other going out .
Marion
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An ancestors neice (so not a direct rellie) was murdered in 1936 at the hands of Dr Ruxton in Lancaster.
It seems the poor girl was nursemaid to Dr Ruxton's children and was murdered as she witnessed Doc kill his wife!
There is quite a bit of info on the net about the case as it was one of the first in which they used forensics.
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Not in my tree yet; but it was mentioned on a rootsweb list a couple of years ago that I had died.
As yet I haven't noticed any difference. ;)
Cheers
Guy
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I think, of what I have found out so far, I have a tie. My ggggrandfather Chirstopher Schmieg and his youngest son, Christopher, died while crossing railroad tracks on Long Island, NY, leaving a widow and 3 more children. Thankfully, however, the 3 weren't infants, being a bit older then there younger brother.
The other is my gggrandfather James Hayes. His wife, Sarah Scott died iin 1888 in childbirth, leaving James to raise 2 small girls, ages 4 and 2 at the time. The lovely women of his church told him he couldn't possibly raise 2 girls by himself and he should put them in an orphanage. He dressed the girls up and took them to the steps of the orphanage, but couldn't leave them, thankfully. I have recently acquired a picture of the three of them that I believe was taken on the day he was taking them to the orphanage.
I can't imagine what he was going through, with no support from his community. :'(
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Not finding much information on my grandmother, who I never met, but know that she is dead. Being searching for a few years without much luck!
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Not in my tree, but I am transcribing some burial records and one entry states 'woman found dead in ditch' name unknown. How sad that someone could end up like this, I wonder what her story was?
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I have an ALBERT BALL in my family tree.
Two of his brothers died in WW1 ( one 17yrs old!) and the only other one was crippled by shellshock and died a little while later.
This meant ALBERT was the only surviving boy in his family.
He went on to have two sons who both died in action in WW2.
So sad...
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Like mc8, these are not members of my family ...
In the churchyard where my greatgrandparents (on my dads side) are buried, are two sisters buried together.
The story is, one foggy evening these two sisters had attended a service at the church, which is right next to the river stour. They made their way across the churchyard to the river to where they believed the ferry was waiting to take them across the river. Unfortunately, they were mistaken and they both drowned :'( I believe that this was in the mid 18th Centuary.
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Aside from the boys who died in the Wars, I think mine has to be my grandma's sister Jean Mary Nash.
The family lived in Bristol, and the family won some money illegally on a sweepstake or something similar. With the winnings they moved to much more upmarket house in Fulham.
Jean was out one day riding her bicycle when she got hit and killed by a motor car which was driven by an 'intoxicated' driver. She was 15 years old.
It was in the mid 1930's and deaths like that were not as common in those days. People wrote to her parents from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand to sympathise with their loss. My great uncle still has all the letters and cards, there is a whole suitcase full!
Her parents believed that they had been punished for the illeal gambling, sold up their big house and moved down to Portsmouth. They never actually told my grandmother that her sister had died, and never spoke about her. :'(
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My grandmothers oldest sister Agnes McMorran Oman died of burns aged 2 1/2 years. in Hawick. Because she was the first born her many sisters did not even know she had existed and it was never spoken about. At least if it is recorded the person is remembered!
Health & safety would have had hysterics back then All open fires, oil lamps, spills and tapers, candles; combined with full skirts and long hair styles - what a catastrophic combination.
By the way Guy I'm glad you survived your near death experience - stay with us we need you!!!
Russell
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My Gt Grandfather's younger brother and most of his family perished in the Diptheria epidemic of 1894:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cawthorn/Palmer/Martha's_Inquest.html
Ann.
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My gt.grandparents were living in the Australian Goldfields - in 1866 a son Ellis was born, he died April 1867 of gastro enteritis, just 5 weeks later a 2nd son was born, also named Ellis.
ALSO
In 1874, my gt.gt.grandparents in Beddgelert, lost two (young adult) children within 2 weeks of each other to Typhoid.
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I have had problems answering this, for mine are to many to mention .
Mine would be from my own generation, those of my own brothers and sisters.
My eldest and never known sister died when she was a Baby from phneumonia, buried in Loose Kent.
Brother Ronald died of Phnuemonia in Rochester 3 years later.
Brother Graham died after an Accident in the Home in 1959,aged 9 months.
My late Father lost a Brother aged 11, who drowned in The River Medway.
Too many to mention, my family is cursed by such events
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Even though you've known tragedy - it's made you a more loving man with your own children and Grandchildren Merv ! - that's very obvious from the way you talk about them!
Doing the family tree seems to bring you closer somehow - doesn't it?
I know it does me!
Annie
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Without hogging the thread Annie, yes it does,Very much so.
You wouldn't believe the whole story though Annie.
But what little you do know, it as made me a more positive person ,and Yes I do know how to enjoy myself ;)
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There are a lot of sad deaths in my family a lot of them died in the coal mines ,man and boy ,but the one that stands out for me is my mother in law ,may,be its because I've lived through it with her ,her husband died at 38 yrs old and she had 12 children ,my husband ,was 8 when he died ,she had twins 3 mths old ,she also looked after her sister who was brain damaged ,even with help it was hard, she never married again and she is ,fit and well she deserved a medal Marion
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Not direct ancestors - but two cases in my tree where an only child was killed in war. Distinguished scientist Sir Walter Noel Hartley, son of my gggrandmother's sister, married an Irish novelist, May Laffan. She was stalked by mental instability and illness, and the marriage seems to have been difficult. Their only child, Walter John Hartley, was killed in action at Gallipoli in WWI.
My great-uncle and great-aunt also had one son, who was killed in World War II. The story goes that my mother, their niece, called in to see them bubbling with happiness to tell them she had just become engaged to my father - this was towards the end of the war. Unknown to her, they had just received the terrible news, but put on a stoic face and congratulated the happy couple. Mum felt really terrible when she found out!
I cannot even begin to imagine how terrible it must be to have your only child killed in war. My eyes fill with tears each time I think of these two couples.
MarieC
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My gg-grandfather went out to the South Seas as a missionary in 1833. He married another missionary's daughter in Samoa and they had eight children.
Gg-grandfather died in Samoa in 1859, and gg-grandmother decided to take the children to England. Two months later they left on a sailing ship which was going to Sydney via Tahiti. A couple of days after leaving Tahiti, two children (aged 4 and 2) sickened and died of diphtheria and the ship stopped at Raiatea Island to bury them. The next day or so, a third child died aged 10, and she is buried somewhere on an island nearby. The rest of the family (including my g-grandfather) survived and eventually made it to England (in time for the 1861 census!).
I often think of my gg-grandmother so recently widowed, and those three children hastily buried on islands in the South Pacific, probably while the ship stood offshore with the captain anxious to continue the voyage. I can't imagine what she went through.
K.
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My G Grandfather had many siblings. The youngest was less than a year older than my G Grandfather's son. His mother died of TB a month after he was born and his father died when he was 17. I don't know who looked after him but I'd like to find out.
Andrew
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hubbies gt, grandfather committed suicide in 1900, apparently his son arthur (hubbies grandfather) went home and found him. Both his wife and daughter both called Ellen were in the fever hospital with typhoid. so i guess he couldn't cope, but he did have 5 other children :( :(
also
on my side of tree i always knew my father had a younger sister who died when young.
my nanna had 3 children 2 boys and 1 girl, and Connie died in the fever hospital just before her 4th birthday, my profile pic is of Nanna and Connie, we know she was buried at Rushmere church but no headstone and unfortunatelty Dad was the only one who knew position of grave. he died 29 yrs ago, my uncle would like to know where she is buried but unfortunately the church does not have a record. i think that is quite sad :(
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My great great grandmother died aged 29. I spent ages trying to work things out because I first found my grt grandfather on the 1871 census, with his father and a wife called Ann. Henry had been born about 1856 and I just couldn't find a Birth cert that matched with these two parents or a marriage. I eventually found that Henry's mother had died in strange circumstances. Her husband was working on a farm about 15 mls away from where she lived with her two sons - Henry aged 3 and Evan aged 18 mths. She was discovered by a neighbour, dead with her two children sleeping beside her. The inquest recorded cause of death unknown.
I still wonder about this.
Ann had an illegitimate child around this time and Margaret might have heard the gossip and just committed suicide. I will never know.
Gadget
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I think the saddest death in my tree was that of my Great Grandfather, Ralph Hincks Lett who was run over by a train in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1895. He left a widow and four children aged between 8 and 15. One of these children was my Granny, Gwyndolyn Leslie (Lett) Williams. The same year a brother of his also died in Argentina from Anthrax.
Mary.
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The saddest death in my family was the death of my only brother at the age of 37.
He had diabetes since he was four years old and had always been rather frail but that didn't deter him from trying anything and everything he was interested in. He never let his health stop him although he had many setbacks and many of the complications associated with this disease. His mind was willing but his body was weak.
In April of 1986 he was hospitalized because he was having so much trouble keeping his blood sugar levels from taking terrible swings up and down. After a week he was released having been stabilized and we all breathed a sigh of relief as he seemed to be much stronger than in the past.
Life resumed as normal and he seemed happy and relatively healthy.
On November 18 he took a sudden turn for the worse and ended up in the hospital. When we had a family conference with the doctor we were told that his kidneys were failing, his heart was to weak for dialysis and that he would probably die within the next few days. He went into a coma two days later and died two days after that.
What we didn't know at the time and didn't find out until my mother went to see the Chiropractor was that he had know since the April hospital visit that he was dying and had only told the Chiropractor ! My mother was horrified when he told her this and asked why he would be told when no one in the family knew.
The Chiropractor told mom that my brother knew how horrible the news would be for everyone especially my mother who had devoted her life to taking care of him. My brother said he was going to die anyway so why make everyone suffer with the knowledge and extend the pain everyone would feel. He said he could never do that to the people he loved.
Can you image knowing that at 37 your life will end at any moment and not sharing that with anyone you are close to? Not having anyone you can talk to about it? Not wanting to hurt anyone else so you keep all your fears, feelings and anguish to yourself?
I find that unbelievably sad, so sad for what he endured by himself. What a wonderful and loving thing he did for my mother as he was right if she had known the fact that she couldn't help him would have destroyed her. She never got over losing him but at least she was spared the pain of knowing he was dying and having to watch it.
I only wish I had half the character that my brother had.
dollylee
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My biological great-grandmother (I say bio, because she wasn't actually part of my family) committed suicide by self-immolation in the 1970's. I don't believe she was a very nice person, but she had buried 2 husbands, 2 sons (who died in their 20's), and was an alcoholic who was living in a boarding house and she had done it real hard. She had had an awful life.
She "borrowed" a jar of metholated spirits and when the guy who gave it to her asked what she intended to do with it (the boarding house was for chronic alcoholics only and he probably thought she was going to drink it) she told him she was going to wash the floor of her room. She went to the lean-to laundry at the back of the house, doused herself, lit a match, and when that didn't catch, put the spent match on the window sill, lit another one, and ran into the backyard on fire.
She lived for eight hours and denied attempting suicide. But the inquest found that the spent match on the window sill proved she intended to set herself on fire. Don't ask me how they worked that out :-\
Aside from the many many infant deaths (although my stock seems to have been fairly hardy - I have branches where 12 of 14, 22 of 23 and 13 of 15 children lived to adulthood) I have some other sad stories:
- a woman who fell off a tram and hit her head on the road
- a man (who had been orphaned at age 1) dying from burns when a burning tractor rolled on him
- a man with 10 children who fell 900 feet down a mine
- a man who fell off a carriage and the horse rolled on him, crushing his chest
and my "favourite" - an ancestor who owned a pub and died of alcoholism!!
Most of my sad ones involve men who died in workplace accidents (like the two above, as well as two of my 2xgrandfathers who died in falls). The reason they are so sad is because all of these men were well into their 70's when they died. They all started work at about age 12 and were still working in hard physical labours 6 days a week more than 60 years later. And these men all died after 1930, not back in the 18th century.
I also have a woman who died of "old age, duration 7 days"!!
As for children dying, I found the headstone of an rellie not long ago. In an overgrown cemetery in an old mining town, there was this HUGE marble monument to my great-grandfather's baby sister, who died of convulsions in the 1870's. They were a poor mining family, but they managed to erect this magnificent memorial to their little lost girl.
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One of my ancestor's brother went to Canada and died in a saw mill accident. I don't even want to think about it.
Andrew
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In my recent Carlisle research I came across the death of my grandfathers brother.
They were swimming at Silloth and my grandfather got into trouble (he was 8 years old). His brother Jim was 22. He saved his brother but lost his own life.
I managed to get the newspaper article from Carlisle Library and all of us who read it cried.
Also my mothers great uncle was knocked off his bike while coming home from work by a run away horse box. He was crushed under it and died later that day. The female driver of the car was fined just £10 for negligence. We have since found out that she was the daughter of a very well known and prominent lawyer which must have helped her case not end! There is no justice in this world is there.
I got copies of this incident from Carlisle Librarys newspaper collection too.
Anna x
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Mine's a group of deaths. My Great Grand mother lost her 28 yrs old husband, 10 month son and her 3 week old baby in 6 weeks. I don't know why she didn't go mad. But she lived into her 80's bring up her three other children.
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My great great great great grandmother Bidget PEGUM died of the effects of exposure to the cold and wet.
Informant H J Andrews, coroner.
Jury at the above inquest considered behaviour of Thomas Pegum to be most reprehensible, being guilty of neglect, want of feeding and total indifference to her death. Couple quarrelled frequently and he once chased his wife around the house with a bayonet. On the night she died, they had quarrelled - he went to the beach with a bottle of rum, climbed back into the house through a window instead of the door and made no attempt to find her. Awake about 5 a m and found her dead of exposure outside. Dragged her body inside and went to report it to Sgt. Samuel Davies of Police Auckland.
This is the saddest death in my family tree. Thomas was part of the Fencibles which came to NZ in the 1840's.
The above cause of death sounds a bit dodgy to me......
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there is 2
One in my husband tree, i'm currently working on :
-The wife 1st wife of his great grand father died suddenly (while pregnant) from a womb haemorrhage at only 40 year. Leaving behind her 6 orphan, the youngest being 3 year old.
On my try tree
My great grand uncle disappeared during the 1st battle of Langemark in November 1914. He was 42. He was not even supposed to be called at war considering his age and his family situation (several children). His family has to wait 1920 for the tribunal to officialise his death. His body never been found. :'(
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I have just received this newspaper cutting about one of my relatives in 1925
Has anyone else got any :( stories to share
Moderator Comment: topics merged
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That's so sad, I have already put up the story of my great aunt Susan who drown in a slurry pit when she was eight in this tread:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,51479.0.html (Moderator: merged)
But there is also the story of my husbands great uncle William who was hit by a cart when he was four. Attached is the newspaper report :'(
Sharon
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I didnt realise that there was another thread for this topic
I will try & get a moderator to move it (Moderator: done)
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Parish Register of Fingringhoe, Essex
19.8.1840 Burial Charles Wade age 15
29.8.1840 Burial George Wade age 14
Both boys were drowned while bathing in the river
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My aunt died, aged just 23, on my uncle's 15th birthday with her mother, just 50, dying 10 weeks later and my poor grandfather present on both occasions. My dad had just had his 12th birthday.
TB was a real killer in the 1930s.
Nanny Jan
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I think I have two saddest in my family so far, or maybe three: there was my great-great grandfather's sister who committed suicide by taking carbolic acid. She took 24 hours to die, in great pain, according to the newspaper. That was in June 1881 and she was only 17.
Then there was my great-great grandfather's adoptive father/uncle by marriage, William H Giesen, who died in 1875 aged 37, after suffering an epileptic fit in the street in London. He fell to the ground, hit his head on the pavement and died two days later of a fractured skull. A policeman on his beat found him surrounded by a crowd of interested on-lookers. For me the sad thing is the attitude of the Victorian public to things like epilepsy. According to the coroner's report, of which I was lucky enough to get a copy, William had no fixed address at the time of his death, but he was employed. For some reason he wasn't living with his wife Martha, to whom he'd been married ten years. In the 1871 census he's recorded as living with her and their "son" Charles (actually her natural nephew).
Lastly there was Fanny, the mother of Charles and Ada, who died aged about 34 in the London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, of psthisis, a form of TB to which people suffering from malnutrition are particularly susceptible.
Oh dear I've remembered no less than three more:
My uncle Ronnie, who died in 1972 aged 17 when he collided on his motorbike with a lorry. His brother, my Uncle Alan, who died the next year, also aged 17, when he was run over by a bus. And lastly, their baby niece, my little cousin Laura, who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome aged 4 months. :'(
Great uncle George died on Christmas Day 1891 ......... he was a handsome cab driver
joboy
My great-great grandfather was also an extremely good-looking hansom cab driver. Sadly I don't take after him.
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For me, the saddest was the undocumented death and burial of my grandmother's twin brother.
My grandmother and her twin brother were born in a maternity home and placed as boarders somewhere (probably by their grandmother). I've got them in the 1920 census (in Maine) at 5 months of age, as boarders on a farm.
At some point after that, my grandmother was left with relatives (again, by her grandmother). It was supposed to be for a short time but they ended up raising my grandmother.
Her twin was said to have died in infancy but there is no death record for him in Maine and no cemetery record in the town where they lived in 1920. I've been told it's possible he was buried on the farm, if he was still there.
Regards,
Josephine
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Another pair of sad deaths in my tree.
My Ancestors oldest daughter, Elizabeth Boyce Douglas married Donaldson, a farm bailiff, in 1856
They soon had 6 children, the last in 1864,
John Donaldson died of some medical conditions causing a brain haemorrhage in Dec 1868
And Elizabeth. I just cannot find what happened to her. I have a letter from Lady Fetherstonehaugh's employee referring to John employment on the Uppark estate, and the poor orphan children.
No death or burial record has been found, no remarriage, and Elizabeth is in no further Censuses.
The children are dispersed among relatives. Two girls go to Albert Douglas and Sarah, one to James Douglas, my ancestors, the others scatterred among uncles and great uncles around the country.
John was about 37 at death, Elizabeth , presumably dying 1864 - 1871 would be 29-36.
John junior too died young in 1900, leaving two young children, and young Martha got TB and was in one of those hospital specialising in the fresh air treatment used at that time.
Bob
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Not only sad but a very unusual set of coincidences.......
My Grandmothers Brother had 5 Sons....the eldest left the sea and joined the Army in 1915 because he thought the sea was too dangerous in Wartime....he went through WW1 without a scratch.....went back to sea and, withing three months, was blown up and killed by a stray Mine.....
His youngest brother left the sea and joined the Army in 1940 because he also thought the sea was too dangerous in Wartime......he went through WW11 without a scratch......went back to sea and was blown up by a stray Mine........What are the odds there??...
Both of them are on the Memorial to lost Seamen on Fish Dock Island Grimsby and the Memorial to Lost Seamen at Lowestoft.........Their Surname is 'Madin'........
Michael72.
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One in my tree is so far unverified, but lives in on family tradition. It concerns my grandfathers elder brother James, a merchant seaman.
Family tradition has it that while in a harbour in Spain some nuns wanted to board the vessel to beg for alms. James, of Irish Catholic descent (although born in Glamorgan) and the ships cook (tradition has it a man named Gregory) got into an argument since GRegory (a non-catholic) objected to the nuns begging.
To cut a long story short, the tradition is that James was hacked to death by the ships cook with a cleaver although I have not yet found any verification to back up this story.
Another sad and gory maritime death in my tree is a distant cousin of my dads whose death (in the 1940's) is recorded as 'death by winch'.
Nasty!
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I think the saddest in my tree was for my Great-Aunt Millie. It was the war years, and her son was in the airforce. He didn't die in combat though, he died in a car crash while on leave.
The saddest part was, her husband also died the same day of a heart attack. I don't think she ever really got over if from what my Dad has said of her.
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I don't know why I continue to let myself read this thread. I read it in my lunch break and end up getting so depressed I can't concentrate on my work in the afternoon. :-\
Kath :)
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One particular family stand out for the number of infant deaths - this is my 3xg aunt who had:
Henry, born 1835, died 1835
Edward born 1837, died 1841
Frances Alice born 1846 died 1846
John born 1847, died 1847
Mary born 1849, died 1849
Thomas Henry born 1854, died 1854
And my ggrandmother who's inquest report I recently found in the paper. She was found by my grandmother who had been looking for her, and the inquest said that if they'd found her earlier she would probably have lived. Cause of death was suffocation, she was only 42 and left 7 children, the eldest only 20.
Jean
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And more from me -
My gggrandmother, en route by ship to Australia to join her husband, had two very small daughters die of diphtheria. They were buried on an island before the ship continued its journey. She would never have revisited their graves, I think. She was a formidable old woman, eventually, but when she died 60 years later, in her 99th year, some soil was found wrapped in a piece of cloth - soil from her babies' grave. She had kept it with her, and probably grieved secretly, all those years!
MarieC
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Oh Marie, thats so sad. :'(
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Not sad practical, she realised that there was little or no chance of re-visiting the grave site and therefore took a memento with her. She possible showed it to her husband on reaching Australia to show the children had been buried in a grave rather than at sea.
There again there could be another explanation for the soil, it could (unless there was some explanation) have been soil from home in England that she was taking to enable her husband to connect with his homeland again.
Cheers
Guy
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There was an explanation with the bit of soil. It was as I have said. And she did not discard it after showing it to her husband - she kept it through major upheavals and moves, including her husband's death many years before her own. It was not practical, Guy - it was emotional, sentimental if you will.
I think it is clear that she kept it as a memento of her lost children, and grieved in private for them. This is the "other side" of a formidable, largely Victorian era lady.
MarieC
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Marie
What a brave lady your gg grandmother was, that was an awful thing for her to have to bear.
I think normally locks of hair were taken but I assume with diptheria being so contagious she may not have been able to have such a momento of her daughters.
I can imagine that soil kept her going through the years as she would not have, as we do now, too many possessions that belonged to her children
Cal
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Mine was putting in my father's death date. Yes he had died, but somehow to see all his vital dates written out, so final, it really made me realise how much I miss him, and how closed that chapter of the book is. However, I see his facial expressions in my children, and their antics, so I know he lives on. Sad nonetheless.
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Yep know how you feel there Kitch!
My father died when I was 5 (he was 44) and it was only in the last few years that I managed to get to the book of names on the date of his death. Brings it all home somewhat.. I remember very little except he was left handed so anything he did was the reverse of what mum did. Silly things like sitting the wrong way around in the bath !! ;D
Cal
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My wife started a great idea for our kids. All the little things they do that make you laugh we write down on small pieces of paper and put in a sealer jar. Someday, when they are older, we will give them the jars so they can see first hand what they did and how much fun they were. She calls them memory jars. A great legacy to pass on to each of them. God forbid but if anything should happen to either of us before they are old enough to really remember us, they will have photos and stories to draw from.
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Great idea but add their written offerings too. I've some treasured notes including 'Dear Dad, I am at the other end of my bed' in case he failed to notice when delivering her morning cuppa!
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HI: Some of these are not in my family tree but I think they were very sad. One in the 1800s was a 6 month girl who was listed as "foundling". I find this disturbing because I thought back then you received a name at baptism. but she had no name so I don't think she was baptised. Didn't they believe an unbaptized child went to limbo? they didn't care I guess. Another was for a brother and sister last name of Devlin, both from typhoid days apart. Two of my own were brothers, one at one year from pneumonia and the other months later age 6 weeks from malnutritioin. I think on Sept 27 ( ancestor appreciation day) we should all remember those who made it and be grateful and those who did not make it. Donna
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My great grandparents lost two of their children ages 1 & 2
respectively, both registered in the march quarter of 1882.
Not certain if they died together and they are one page apart
in the index.
Mike.
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I had one set of great x 4 grandparents who had 16 children, every one of them bar one died under the age of 5.
I don't quite understand why they kept having children.
Kerry :'( :'(
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I think on Sept 27 ( ancestor appreciation day) we should all remember those who made it and be grateful and those who did not make it. Donna
What is this ancestor appreciation day? Sounds a good idea, but I've never heard of it before.
MarieC
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Try:
Bizarre, Crazy, Silly, Unknown Holidays & Observances
at:
http://www.brownielocks.com/september.html
Some other days listed in September are:
5th - Be Late for Something Day (right up my alley!)
21st - Pause the World Day (yeah! - stop the world, I certainly want to get off!)
24th - Punctuation Day (fellow pedants of the world unite?)
30th - Pumpkin Day (why not ...)
And no wonder people who adhere to the Muslim faith worry about the 'West' when Islam's holy month of Ramadan is listed on the above site ...
JAP
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HI Kerry: One answer as to why they kept having children- only one method of reliable birth control available- abstinence. Can't you just imagine how worn out a woman would become. I have a wedding picture of one set of GG grandparents, and then one taken about eight years and many babies( both living and dead) later; what a difference, and I can't even imagine the heartache.
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I beginning to understand why my relatives in photos at my current age looks 30 or 40 years older!
I couldn't imagine the heartache either.
Kerry
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My Sister Evelyn Rose was born September 1939 when I was five...........by June 1940 she had died of German Measles aged six months and my Mum had died of TB in Branston Hall Sanitorium Lincoln.........God only knows how my Dad coped with that...........
Michael72.
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Hello: Ancestor Appreciation Day is a Buddhist tradition. Of course it has much deeper/ religious meaning for a buddhist. However ever since I started this research, and knowing what diseases were associated with the men's jobs, and the toll of endless pregnancies on women, I have always wanted to do something in appreciation. I did a Google search for "ancestor appreciation" , and there it was. There is also a poem called " To My Ancestor" . I think I saw it here; I loved that. If it wasn't for those who survived terrible disease, privation, and worked at horrible jobs, we wouldn't be here. I often wonder- could I do it? Donna
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What a nice idea, Ancestor Appreciation Day! :)
So long as Hallmark doesn't start marketing cards and spoil it! :(
Kerry
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Thanks for filling me in on Ancestor Appreciation Day. I think it's a nice idea too, and I agree, hope the card companies don't commercialise it and spoil it!!!
MarieC
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Thanks for filling me in on Ancestor Appreciation Day. I think it's a nice idea too, and I agree, hope the card companies don't commercialise it and spoil it!!!
MarieC
Oh yes they will Marie - as I write this, they are all preparing 'suitable' cards - especially the internet ones :(
Perhaps we should just stick to Mother's Day (Mothering Sunday) and that later invention, Father's Day - just add as many greats as you want.
Sceptical Gadget
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Well SHUSH Gadget! 8)
Don't tell 'em!! They don't read Rootschat messages, do they??? ::)
MarieC ;D
PS Anyway, who would you send the cards to?? Don't think anyone has yet found a way to get letters or cards through to The Other Side!! ::) ::)
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Apparently there is now Grandparents Day in September too. There were a few ads on TV last year, so it will get bigger!!!
Kerry
Personally I never need a special day to appreciate either of my parents.
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Oh they'd find a way. Nice little gnomes as card holders for the graves, cards on spikes to plunge into the earth, nice little tableaux for the sideboard, special candles for the churches.................
Ancestor barbies and balloons....................
Maybe I'll patent it ;D
Gadget
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Tacky, Gadget, tacky!! :o Come on, you're a person of good taste and good bloodlines! ;D Whatever the perceived financial rewards, stay away from it!!
MarieC
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The saddest death that I know of - with personal regret - is that of my maternal grandmother. She died in Feb. 1919 in Liverpool (presumably as a result of the 'flu epidemic). She had pneumonia for 5 days, had been in childbirth for 2 days, and died just after my mother was born. :(
My grandfather's mother then travelled from Belfast, collected the wee scrap of a baby, took her back to Ireland and raised her with the help of one of her daughters. My grandfather, a marine engineer, went back to sea and I'm still trying to trace his history from then on....with no success to date. The aunt who raised my mother was the equivalent of a grandmother to me, and I love her dearly.
Hilary.
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Oh Gadget
You only need to revive the tradition for 'In Memoriam' cards. I only have one in my possession, from 1901, but I'm hoping soon to see copies of those amongst the memorabilia of my Great-grandparents [both born 1840] that have been preserved by the descendants of their youngest daughter.
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My 5XGt Grandparents had 9 children between 1771 and 1789 - all but 1 (my 4X Gt Grandmother) died in infancy.
Can't imagine how hard times were
Susan
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I've just been going through bits from the Family Bible on my Parry-Jones line. I mentioned my Margaret Ellis death a few pages ago - which was really sad.
My grandmother, her mother and her mother all died fairly young of flu or bronchitis followed by pneumonia - they would have survived today.
These little writings make me really sad though. The first is written by Martha Parry (nee Jones - b. 1845) after her mother and father died and the second two are written by her daughter Sarah Parry (b. 1873) when Martha died. Sarah died in 1928. There is just a cutting from the Church magazine and a funeral bill for her. When I inherited the bible, I continued the tradition. It's very consoling when one is in grief.
Gadget
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Here's the third:
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What a lovely but sad poem Gadget.
Kerry
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It's very sad Kerry., but if you saw it in one of those cards, you'd say yuck! or I would anyway.
It's very strange how something written 116 years ago by an ancestor, obviously in grief, makes it all seem different. I chose John Milton's At a Solemn Music for my Mum. She was very religious and had a beautiful singing voice.
Gadget
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The difference is it was written by your ancestor for her mother, makes it a whole lot less yucky!!!
Kerry
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My gt. gt. Uncle Charles Hurley worked for the Great Western railway as a truck manager and was run over and killed by one of his trucks - he was only 21 years old.
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if you saw it in one of those cards, you'd say yuck! or I would anyway.
Who's left to say who composed it?
A printer's instructed what to write.
So much detail is mentioned in 'my' Mildred's card
No disparaging comments can blight!
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Think you might have misunderstood what I was saying dee-jay
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It matters not if he wrote it or chose it, I can feel a young Sidney Wilcox's pain and anguish in this text following the loss of his wife aged only 26 years from puerperal fever following childbirth:
Day after day we saw her fade,
And gently pass away;
Oh, how we prayed that she would
Longer with us stay.
A light is from our household gone,
A voice we loved is stilled;
A place is vacant in our home,
Which never can be filled.
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Thanks, dee-jay, for introducing this aspect,
And to yourself and Gadget for posting examples. They are very touching, lovely to read. I have seen just a very few like this - most of my ancestors seem to have suffered in stoic silence - but I treasure what I have seen.
It is good to have this dimension to this thread, to show how our ancestors themselves grieved the sadnesses. Thanks again, dee-jay.
MarieC
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I was looking at the parish registers for Dry Drayton this morning (got them on fiche today, and couldn't help but run to the library to borrow their reader). My 4xgreat-grandfather buried three of his children within days of each other...all died from scarlet fever. Poor guy. :(
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Diseases like that must have been devastating for families with many small children, infections go right through families with children these days!
Kerry
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I had mentioned this poem in one of my posts and thought I owuld put it up.
Ancestor Poem
Your tombstone stands among the rest
Neglected and alone
The name and date are chiseled out
On polished marble stone
It reaches out to all who care
It is too late to mourn
You did not know that I exist
You died and I was born
Yet each of us are cells of you
In flesh, in blood and bone
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse
Entirely not our own
Dear Ancestor, the place you filled
One hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
Who would have loved you so
I wonder if you lived and loved
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot
And come to visit you
Author Unknown
Donna
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This is the saddest so far..... my great-uncle who joined the Royal Flying Corps before WW1 broke out, who was just so keen to learn who to be a pilot (in the early days of navigation).
My great-uncle (ERIC HENRY DOBSON) wasn't from a moneyed family (one where he would have instantly become a commissioned officer) but he obviously was bonkers about flying and wanted to be a pilot.
This is a photo of him (I've already posted it on the Armed Forces board not that long ago). http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,157548.msg731872.html#msg731872. I can't seem to stop returning to his photo, which I've only got hold of in the past few years. Eric died not long after the photo was taken - he was shot down during the Battle of the Somme. His body was never found and the circumstances of his death never verified.
I have his Mons Star medal but it seems that his other medals went unclaimed.... his parents couldn't face it? How could you cope with a death of your 22-year-old son, and you never could have his body to bury?
As a mum, I would rather die....
Clara
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Nice thoughts in the poem. I've often wondered what my ancestors and I would really think of each other if we met. Would we get along? Given that there are "characters" in my family at present, there must have been some back then, and you start thinking if you would associate with some of them. I guess that's why we try so hard to make sure our family records are much more than names and dates. Trying to preserve the human traits as well.
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Very moving poem, Donna! I hadn't seen your other post, so thank you for sharing it here. I do resonate with the sentiments!
All the stories on this thread are so sad.
MarieC
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Nice thoughts in the poem. I've often wondered what my ancestors and I would really think of each other if we met. Would we get along? Given that there are "characters" in my family at present, there must have been some back then, and you start thinking if you would associate with some of them. I guess that's why we try so hard to make sure our family records are much more than names and dates. Trying to preserve the human traits as well.
I often wondered what my ancestors would think of me too. :o :o :o
I know what I think of some of them! ::) ::) ::) ::)
Would they like me?
I guess that's why I strive so hard to find out more about them than just dates.
Kerry
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Loved the poem Donna.
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The saddest death in my tree was Emma Rowe. At age 16 she was killed when a brick wall fell on her and several other people. The brick wall was part of a building that was damaged in a fire several months earlier.
Here's my report.
http://burrowdigger.rootschat.net/great_fire.htm
Emma was my gt grandfathers cousin.
BD
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Oh Burrow digger that is sad!!!
And so young! :'( :'( :'( :'(
Kerry
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How sad but wonderful that you found out about her.
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I also have another sad death as well - two actually.
Effie (drowned 1917 aged 11)
Russell (drowned 1917 aged 8 )
These were my grandfather's youngest siblings. They drowned on the same day in the same pond.
My grandfather and his 4 older brothers were serving in Europe (WW1) at the time. My grandfather lost another of his brothers at the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium also in 1917.
I grew up knowing about Effie and Russell, I've never needed to "search" for them. But they are part of my family tree, so I have included them.
I still think Emma's death (see above) was the saddest death that I have actually "found".
BD
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One of my dad's great uncles was driving a cart down a steep hill in Sussex that turned over and ran him over!
Everytime I drive down that hill I feel really sad.
Kerry :'( :'(
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All these are very sad and bring a lump to your throat don't they?
Heres my sad tale: My husbands mother was born October 23rd 1918 her dad was wounded in France on 9th November and died on 15th never knowing he had a daughter! Just last night I found a birth record for a son born and died to them aged 0 in 1915 my mother in law never knew she had a brother, we have not been able to find any photos etc of him either.
subee :'(
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In mine it must be my Gt Gt Gt grandfather and Mother
James Ashley died in 1839 aged 32 of Consumption, his 5th child was only 5 months old at the time and then Ann his wife died 1 year later of fever.
Out of 5 Children 3 survived, and had to be farmed out to other relatives. So poor old Carey never really knew his mum and dad.
Ian
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Hi everyone
The saddest deaths in my family tree were my wonderful mum and dad how we all miss them so much....dad loved poetry and wrote over 50 poems i would like to share this one with you all its called
The Final journey
As the cortege finally wounds its way
Through leafy lanes this sunny day
Life is short so come what may
Each one of us must pass this way
We all make this final journey
Each one of us some day
For no one can escape it
There is no other way
Then we will reach a tranquil land
To a better life which god has planned
No more heartache no more sorrow
We will all see a bright tomorrow
So do not worry or be sad
The final journeys not so bad
To that land where love is paramount
Shall each one of us our blessings count.
Pentio.
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Pentio...lovely poem xx
My saddest death is the little illegitimate daughter of my great grandmother.
Greatgrandma had 2 children when her husband died at age 31. She then had Agnes...father unknown. Agnes died of malnutrition...aged 18 months.....why???
Indi
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Subee
Your story really touches me. Those family members never knowing they had a daughter, or a brother!! Really sad.
MarieC
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my sad stories are;
my grandmothers uncle peter got married and he and his wife catherine had two children,first a girl then a boy, margaret the little girl was brushing her hair by a candle and dies a few days later in hospital aged 5.
my grandmother is born 6 years later to margaret,peters sister nothing is known of the circumstances this is in wexford ireland,father unknown my grandmother is very ill and is 'taken on' by peter and his wife at the age of two.
every year as a child my grandmother was sent a shamrock but never knew her mother, peters sister.
i am still trying to trace the stafford family from wexford.
also my grandfather was the youngest or nine children and never realy knew his father as he was in WW1 and away all the time when my grandfather was nine monthe old he caught phnewmonia and a telegram was sent for his father to return at once as his yougest son was about to die.
but grandad pulled through at the last minute amazing the doctors!
then his father came home from the war he was very ill and was not to be disturbed he died when my grandad was seven,he said he cant remember his dad he just remembers a smell of death.
he left a wife and nine children my grandad said they were pretty poor,had no shoes and ate mostly bread and tea (previously they were a fairly well off family) but his mother stuggled on and worked hard to support them all.
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There's quite a poignant one in ours, rather like your grandad. My grandad, born in 1917, came from a very poor family in Camberwell/Peckham. His parents married when he was one, and registered his birth when he was two. His father was a womaniser and beat his mother. My grandad (George Phillips) could neither read nor write when he joined the Army, and the Army taught him to do both. He served in the Far East in the Second World War, and by the time he came home his health was completely broken down. He had married my grandmother in 1944 and their only child, my dad, was born in 1945. What I think is really awful is that on his return to Civvy Street, with a wife and little boy to look after, in spite of his very poor health and being in and out of hospital, my grandad went along to the Labour Exchange to look for a job. The harpy on duty told him "Oh yes, we do have work, but not for the laikes of you!" I devoutly hope that someone, somewhere, gave her a well-deserved, good hard smack in the face. My grandfather died of TB in 1953, leaving a widow and my dad who was seven. Not to mention his poor mother who was widowed by then.
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My grandfather died in WW2 knowing he had a baby daughter (several months old) but he never got to see her.
A great uncle died in a house fire.
Going back a bit further (1910) my great great uncle drowned in the River Thames.
All very sad. :'(
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Tap
I have the same in my tree. My g uncle died killed in action 2 days before his daughter was born
Also my grandfathers nephew (and PrueMs g uncle) was drowned in the Thames C1915 ....... we are not talking about the same boy are we? Siddy (Sidney) Ingram
Cal
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Hi Cal
My mum was born in the May and granddad died in the September of the same year. Although I believe he was aware that my mum was born just never got to see each other.
my great great uncle was Adlart George Miller who drowed in the Thames.
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Hi Tap
How awful it must have been for our folk back then. We have no preception really now do we?
As for drowning in the Thames maybe it was more common place some years ago not the same safety awareness then or maybe not?? Perhaps we are flooded with info and unless you live in the area elsewhere do not get to know about it ? Siddy was a smallboy, very tragic
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My daughter who was stillborn but if that doesn't count I would say my two great uncles who were both killed in WW1
Rob
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Of course she counts Rob, I'm so sorry.
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Rob
They all count to you. Nobody else's opinion matters a whit in this.
It says a lot about the sadness you feel whether for a recent death or one a hunded years ago.
It's lovely to be able to tell people about your inner feelings and know they will be totally in sympathy with you.
I feel pangs for the Great-aunt who died after being burned at the age of two. As she was the first child even her younger sisters did not know about her as she was never mentioned. Her mother must have always felt guilt for her death.
I hope we will always be able to share our sad nesses as well as our happy finds.
Russell
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:'( :'(
When I first posted this topic in April last year, little did I know how many sad and poignant stories it would throw up. Makes you realise just how lucky you are.
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We're lucky....to have you back Mobo ;D
Love
Su xxx
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My grandfather, like many of his generation, died with no trace in WW1 leaving a widow and 6 small children.
An earlier family lost 3 small girls age 2 to 6 within 2 months in the mid 19th century. They probably died of typoid fever in an epidemic at that time.
Cheers Dave
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Dave
I've got a family of small children that were practically all wiped out by an outbreak of diptheria.
Very sad!
Kerry :'( :'(
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We're lucky....to have you back Mobo ;D
Love
Su xxx
Oooeeer..... you are too kind Su ! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
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There are a few sad deaths in my tree :-[
my grand father and great grand father collided with a bus in 1933 my great granddad was killed instantly. fracture to the skull but his son died the next day fracture to the base of the skull and internal bleeding. my mum was 9 at the time and her little brother was just a few months old.
the second is the lose of my little sisters one was a still birth but this affected my mum for ages. when she gave birth to my brother a year later she didn't want a son but her daughter.
My other sister died of DVT 5 months after having her second child 12 years ago.
:(Bell :(
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that's terrible, Bell, about your sister. I'm sorry to hear that.
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My husband's uncle was beheaded by the Japanese in Burma in WW2. My mother's sister died in 1939 from pernicious anaemia at the age of 26, leaving 2 small sons aged 3 & 4.
Ellen
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My husband's uncle was beheaded by the Japanese in Burma in WW2. My mother's sister died in 1939 from pernicious anaemia at the age of 26, leaving 2 small sons aged 3 & 4.
Ellen
:o :o :o :'( :'( :'(
Oh Ellen, poor uncle! :( :( :(
Every death, no matter how young or old the person is, or how they pass, is terribly tragic, but to die at the hands of another human being and in such a horrific way....it just breaks my heart :'(
Prue
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My saddest death was that of my Grandmothers parents. They both died four weeks apart and my Grandmother was only 16 yrs old. They were seperated, but her Step-father made her go into service and sign her rights away to the family fortune. I thought that was awful at that time in her life.
Then my own parents died within 12 weeks of one another.
I thought this very eiry, as my Grandmother and I both had/have 4 sons. So much in common but worlds apart.
Pam
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I Have threee tragic endings for four of my family which one is sadder I'm not sure.
Theres mypaternal gr grand dad Albert along with his son Nigel (12) and daughter Vera (21) that were killed during a bombing blitz in 1944 or theres my paternal gr grand dad that died in the Australian outback without food water or shelter, and last but not least my maternal gr grandmother who died after a botched abortion that killed her with blood poisoning leaving my grand mother to grow up without her mum.
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My aunt's grandad and great uncle died in same hospital within 3 days of each other. That was in 1918 Influenza epidemic.
My aunt was surprised because it explained why her gran was very poor and all.
I think it is even harder on her gran because she never recovered from the deaths of her husband and child. She never remarried. She remained a widow all of her life.
Sad, isn't it? :'(
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Mine would have to be the wife of my g.g.granduncle - My Margaretta was married at 19, had two little boys, one of whom died at 2 years old, the following year she died, and the last son died when he was 9 years old. The husband/father seems to have vanished off the face of the planet after this, poor man.
Pauline in Oz
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My great grandmother lost her little girl Eleanor Mckenzie while sailing to New Zealand to make a new live with her husband Adam and buried her at sea only 23 months old .Then she lost her third child at 23 months a little boy William buried in Dunedin and left New Zealand a widow to come back to England ,She remarried and had a daughter Ormuz in 1895 only to lose her at the age of 15 in 1911
Elizabeth
Also lost two brothers one 27 yrs old and one killed in Australia aged 38
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:'( :'(
Makes you realise just how lucky you are.
Tragic, tragic tales, like I said, we don't know how lucky we are these days do we ??
:'( :'( :'(
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My great uncle committed suicide in the 60's when his wife left him. When my mum and I found out it we both found it really sad.
Two of my other great uncles died a month apart from tuberculosis in 1946, the eldest was 23 and the youngest was 13, that was also v.sad to discover.
Acceber
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One of the sadest was my grandfather losing his first wife and new born baby on the same day and the next day his eldest son died from drinking kero so losing 1 wife and 2 kids in 36 hours horrendous
I lost many children contracting scarlet fever coming over to Australia
My g.g. grandfathers son lost 3 wives all due to childbirth
the weirdest old age 3 days
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The death of Granfather Joe.
I was told Grandfather Joseph Bartlett, who was a carpenter/builder, fell off a neighbour's roof, right in front of his young wife and four children. I always thought it was tragic.
The truth was worse.
I have found the poor man was put in an assylum with what sounds suspiciously like a nervous breakdown in todays terms, and died a year later, abandoned by the family, of colitis.
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I must admit I have been very fortunate, my tree has had no skeletons, no sad deaths until recently....... on a twiglet of my tree a GG Aunt marries in 1874 they have a son in 1875 her husband appears to disappear, anyway she remarries in church stating she is a widow in 1878 has a child in 1881 dies of heart disease in 1883 aged 29, then her second husband dies a year later in the work house aged 28. We have found her first son but no trace of her daughter!
Libby
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The following is from my paternal grandfathers bible detailing his first marriage and family.
Harry Weaving aged 23 married Alice Jane Boulton aged 24 in the Parish Church,Pitchcombe,Gloucestershire on Christmas day 1893.
Children.
Walter Edward Weaving born Nov 15th 1894
John Weaving born 16th Oct 1895 at 1pm.
Mary Weaving born 11th August 1896 at 2pm
Arthur William Weaving born 5th Nov 1898 at five minutes to seven.
Deaths.
John Weaving died 16th Oct 1895.
Mary Weaving died 11th August 1896.
After Arthur William was born,the family moved to Birmingham when in 1900 and in the space of 4 months,his wife and his son Arthur William died and my grandfather remarried.
I find the latter very strange.
Derek.
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Derek
Some time ago [sadly, can't remember the source] I read that in the Victorian era a 3-months' period of mourning for a widower was the 'norm', whereas it was a year and a day for a widow: such were the inequalities between the sexes!
The needs of a 30 years old widower left with a 6 years old son would have been paramount, particularly if there was an absence of family support in Birmingham - the area to which he had recently moved.
After so much tragedy, Harry would undoubtedly have been very susceptible to any tender-hearted lady of his acquaintance.
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I had often wondered why people re-married soon after a spouse's death, but when you think that there was no welfare system, and you had children to feed and house, is it any wonder?
And I don't know if in the working class they would have observed a mourning period. Middle and upper class, probably, yes. I've got at least half a dozen rellies who married again extremely soon after their spouse died, in two cases to the next door neighbour!!
All of it was very sad, but part of living in that era.
Regards,
Pauline
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I have three that particularly haunt me. My gg grandmother died of exhaustion and cancerous ulceration of the face and my dad's grandfather was riding in the mineshaft lift when it over wound. He fell to safety but his 14 year old son ,who had just left school, fell all the way down the shaft to his death. My g grandfather fell to his death down a mineshaft and left his wife and three children aged 6,4 and 5 months. Tragic.
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aparently it was normal for a widow with kids to marry a man soon after her husbands death so she had fiinancel support, a widower with kids would remarry as soon as he could so his new wife could look after the kids while he went to work. when my grandfarher was killed in the 30s my nan married his brother who was a widower only 3 months later. i think it was only the very rich who waited for a year and a day.
Bell :)
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I came across one at the weekend. A distant cousin together with his wife and 6 children aged between 1 and 14 all died together when the SS Lusitania was sunk in 1915.
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Now that is tragic :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
Kerry
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I must admit that would be hard to beat in the "saddest" deaths.
I think its time though for a new topic, something happy?
Bye,
Pauline
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Can't help thinking that it would have been even sadder had one survived?
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You are probably right. :-\ This subject is getting a bit too tragic for this lovely sunny weather. Very depressing. Perhaps I should stop reading.
Kerry :'(
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Can't help thinking that it would have been even sadder had one survived?
I dug around a bit last night and found that the governess survived. Three of the childrens bodies were recovered and buried in Ireland.
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Now it's getting even sadder!!!!
Please stop!
Kerry ;)
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I have just received a birth certificate for one of my ancestors, which shows that her father was dead by the time of her birth. He got married in August 1865 aged 23, died of Psthithis (TB) in November 1865 and his daughter was born the following May.
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The Fallen Green Leaves: Zelley
As I search through my Family Trees and the trees of others,
if it was a song, it would be the saddest song of all. The
sound of a fallen green leaf of the family tree is the saddest sound of all.
Not to select one over another, it was the case of young
Herbert John Zelley dying in 1897 that was an important
factor that led me to appreciate family history and spend the last 15 years searching and communicating.
In his case, there was a storm, a large oak tree, and the
home by the waterfront. Suddenly, the tree crashed onto the roof of the abode and killed four year old Herbert. Such a
shame, and others were injured.
Of interest, about sixty years later, I came close to drowning
a short distance from where Herbert died. In my case,
two local children were playing on a sailboat when we swung out and slipped. At the time, I couldn't swim, but
remember going under the docked sailboat and servicing in front of the boat and nearly under the wharf (Gulp").
Then again, another sad case was the loss of a second cousin
(aged 18) in the 1941 Blitz of London. She was one of many
including other family members celebrating a birthday party.
But, the gift package from a bomber overhead put a sudden
end to the celebrations. Now that is so sad. The candles are the last thing that should be blown away at a birthday party, not the guests.
In closing, the saddest thought of all is thinking that
"the little grren leaf will never turn a golden brown
after it has has fallen down".
:'( :'( The flood of tears, teardrop by lonely teardrop,
will never wash away the pain and sorrow of the lost hopes, wishes, and dreams, for the potential of the young child
that falls down and becomes lost. :'( :'(
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What was the saddest death in my family?
Probably my mother-in-law's earlier this year.
She was adopted. She knew her mother's name but not her father's, and there was no father's name on the birth certificate when I sent for it.
She often wondered who he was and whether she had any siblings.
I have since discovered that her mother also had 2 other children (also no father named). So she had an elder and younger sister that she did not know about. And to make matters worse; they lived no more than 4 or 5 miles away!!
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That is sad, if only she could have known.
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My Mothers grandad died in Birmingham on the way to see his new baby and wife in hospital.There wasa riot or demonatration on and the street was packed,he stepped backwards off the kerb and got hit by a Police man weilding a truncheon at the crowd.He was bundled off and he died of his injuries.
Yesterday my Mom now 83 told me with tears in her eyes of when her baby brother Leonard died aged 18 months of meningitis :'(...he used to say tick tock instead of clock and he had a mass of golden curls.time helps to heal but does not take away all the pain.
Bit of a sad thread this
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One of my wife's ancestors was a miller. He wore a smock, as they did in those days. It caught in the cogwheels and he was drawn in to the machinery. According to the inquest, he lingered for three days.
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Poor man, three days. How terrible that must have been.
Meningitis, it's so sad, one of the girls on another board has just lost her sister to that, and I lost my cousin. sad sad.
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These are all truly sad, but from a purely personal point of view I would have to say that the saddest death in my tree, and the one I avoid looking at, is the mother of my children a few days before Christmas 2004 at the age of 54.
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My two brothers
I lost one brother at the age of 28 with asthma he had had from being an infant
48 years yesterday 29 .8.1958
And my second brother was killed in Albury Australia aged 38 27.4.1965 as he went to get the job started for the next day .A chain broke on the machine he was busy with and he was killed instantly.
Elizabeth
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Bill 749
How sad I know its sad at Christmas my mum died 15 December 1990
Elizabeth
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Not one of my ancestors (at least I don't think so!) but just take a look at the website of Old Bailey proceedings. I happened on 3 July 1828 and couldn't believe the number of death sentences on just that one day, e.g. a 19yr old for robbery of a 6d book and two halfcrowns, a 19yr old for housebreaking, etc etc. It was good to find, though, that some were never carried out.
Also a 14yr old transported for life for theft of a 3/- (15p) handkerchief. And many many more.
Also whippings of juveniles 'until their back was bloody'.
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Paula, I had meningitis aged one, and am still here 54 years later
Could easily have gone another way
Bob
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my ggg grandfather who drowned himself in Scotland in 1892 age 62.The newspaper report of the time said he had been in ill health and out of work for some time and in a despondent frame of mind.Two of his sons had died a few years before him ages 33 and 23.I often think about him and his wife and the life they must have had in those days.
Steve
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My Grandmother gave birth to triplets at home. The midwife came to deliver the babies. The first was born with the cord around his neck, grandma said he was blue but breathing with difficulty. The second baby was coming fast so the midwife placed first baby on one side to deliver number two and three. When she returned to the first baby he was dead. Grandma still had him christened and had a funeral for him. I could weep every time I think of that tiny coffin. That child would have lived today but back in the 1920's child birth was very unsafe.
Pennine
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My great Grandmother lost her husband in the morning and her year old son in the evening. Her husband from a heart attack and her son from fever. She registered the deaths herslf the next day.
She had seen her two brothers die before she was nine. Her father hung himself when she was 10. Her mother died when she was 12. Her first husband died when she was 6 months pregnant with my grandfather.
My youngest grand daughter, born last month, was named after her.
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I had already writtten in this thread about the very sad death of Agnes....
But...the truth be known...
The saddest death is my darling daughter, Julie, who died Jan 28 1997...aged 35.
I will never recover from this terrible event.....
9 years has not changed the pain.
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My Ggrandmother who died just after giving birth in 1906. Her death was given as childbirth and malnutrition she was 39 years old.
My Grandfather aged 18 at the time was left in charge of the family (8 including the baby for a short time).........because after the funeral.......my Ggrandfather took off to parts unknown......never to be heard of again!.
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The saddest death is my darling daughter, Julie, who died Jan 28 1997...aged 35
That is the worst - we do not expect to outlive our children and to lose them in the prime of their life is something that must be truly awful to come to terms with.
My deepest sympathy Indiapaleale
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Bill and Indiapaleale -
The deaths closest to us have got to be the saddest. How awful for you both - and all the other Rootchatters coping with recent deaths.
I have seen history programmes where experts have put forward the view that because deaths were more common in the past, eg. men in dangerous jobs, women giving birth and children dying from diseases, that people were not so affected by them. I just don't believe this. I'm sure that our ancestors felt the deaths of their nearest and dearest just as deeply as we do.
Monica
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My Mother's father died Christmas eve 1970 ten days later my father died 5th January, its was my mothers 39th birthday. Both died at home of heart attack's.
Further back in the family tree i lost a great uncle to fire, died age 7 playing with matches in bed and two years later his sister died when her hair caught fire while drying it by on open fire.
The happiest death i have is an old uncle who after enjoying a good days walking in North Wales, then died (heart attack) in the pub after his first pint which someone else had got him. At his funeral a walking friend was heard to say ''George would do anything to avoid buying a round''. For George it was an ideal exit.
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my great great grandfather was knocked down whilst walking home across westminster bridge by a cart and was trampled by 4 horses on xmas eve 1870, he died from his injurys 20 days later, he had just been to his sons wedding,must have been a crap xmas and honeymoon for the newly- weds.
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Probably a distant Uncle. He died the day after joining his unit in WWI. He was 19 years old.
I suppose what brought it home to me, was that I found out about him only days after my own daughter celebrated her 19th birthday.
There, but for the grace of God .....
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My great grandfather William's brother Samuel! He lost sons, William and Sydney aged 1 in 1898 and 5 in 1899 respectively then Son Reg aged 1 and Daughter Emily aged 9 in 1900, then his newborn son Samuel and wife Mary aged 34 in 1901 and lastly his sole remaining child, Mary Ann at 18 in 1910 from TB. He then lost the plot understandably and sadly died in the workhouse in 1918.
I could never imagine nor wish to what that poor man went through! So sad.
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Bill - very sorry to hear of the loss of your children's mother at such a time.
Mine - my father (who died when I was 20) never spoke about his parents who I never knew (hence my doing my tree). I was shocked recently when I found that my grandmother died when he was 5, and his father commited suicide 5 years later. No wonder he never mentioned them.
meles
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I just had to share this, im not sure that it is quite relavent to the topic but on doing a tree for a friend. I came across this, it was written by his 3x great grandmothers brother Daniel who was convicted of stealing £101, 18s 10d in 1848 aged just 23. He was then transported to Australia (in 1851 when he wrote this poem) to serve out his 10 years. He never did see any of his family again. He died aged 37 from a tragic accident involving a fall from his horse (he badly hurt his leg, it was amputed not long after as gangrene set in but it was to late.)
Farewell my friends and parents dear
I bid you all adieux
With aching heart I write these lines
I suffer much for you
In sorrow I confess my faults
and ever shall regret
To see my father weep for me
I never shall forget
My tender Mother sighed with grief
Each sister shed a tear
I am bereaved of all my friends
No one my heart to Cheer
My tender father ever dear
Bemoaned my wretched state
He tried my liberty to gain
But alas it was too late
Now I hope these lines that I write
Will give your hearts some ease
So breathe a prayer on my
When I am on the seas
I quickly shall be hurried hence
And from you shall be driven
And if we meet no more on earth
Then may we meet in heaven.
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Oh Penninah
How tragic for him and his family ... mind you £101 in 1848 must have been an awful lot! Do you know how he came to get himself in that situation?
Cal 8)
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I recently found the burial records for Stratford on Avon Cemetery on line. ( a wonderful resource) My father had told me that he had a first cousin drown in the canal, but he knew no more. I found the record for the death in 1908 (eight years before my father was born) and when I visited the Stratford Record Office last week, I was able to find the coroner's report in the local paper. He was aged 6 and was playing on the canalside, at the end of their street, on a Sunday afternoon in early August and fell in. A police constable tried artificial respiration but to no avail. The verdict was "foudn drowned".
His parents had six other children who died in childhood and three who survived.
Ellen
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mine was my grandads youngest brother - whom he never knew....he died age 5 - he was run over by a van. Death cert states 'violent rupture or mesentery (intestine) caused by running into a passing van (4 wheels one horse) when the hind wheel went over his abdomen'
Alison
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Two of the saddest deaths in my tree was one of my Great Grand Aunties, Myrtle Thomas, died at the age of four from 'scalds'. So she got severely burnt.
My 5xGreat Grandfather was hung in 1826. I even have the exact time and that the church bells tolled just as they were hung. His wife, who was sent to the female factory after her husband died, killed herself a few days later. Apparently she was found with her baby still at her breast (she had four children).
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Just found this thread...someone commented on how hard life was then, and we can't really comprehend it.
This isn't in my tree, but I came across it browsing the Yorkshire PRs online. I call it ...
The Very Sad Life of Edward Fox of Saltmarshe
Beginyng The 14th Day of September In The Yeare of Our Lord 1543
The Register of all the Weddings of Howden, Knedlington Boothe
Edward Fox of Saltmarsh, Jennitt wife 22 May 16o1.
The Register of All the Burialls within the Whole Parish of Howden
Elizabeth daughter to Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 6 Sept 16o1.
A son of Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 11 Apr 16o4
Jone daughter to Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 10 Aug 16o5
Jone daughter to Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 8 Jul 16o7
Daughter to Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 21 Sept 16o8
John son to Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 2 Nov 16o9
The daughter to Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 30 Nov 161o
The son of Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 29 Sept 1611
A daughter to Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 9 Nov 1612
A son to Edward Fox of Saltmarshe 31 Oct 1614
A son to Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 29 Oct 1615
A son to Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 7 Mar 1616
A daughter to Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 5 May 1618
A daughter to Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 26 Jul 1619
Jennett wife to Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 2 Aug 1619
Edward Fox of Saltmarsh 10 Dec 1632
Cheers, sort of,
China
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jeune-romantique,
Welcome to Rootschat! I think there might be a couple of other members around your age. (And I speak French, so I know what your username means!! ;D )
What sad incidents, china and j-r, and I really feel for your 5xggrandmother, j-r. Poor woman. What despair she must have felt!
MarieC
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Ahh, yes my username. Glad someone knows what it means.
And what a tragic life, chinakay. I wonder if ANY of his kids survived?
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sadly the most tragic deaths in my tree have to be my uncle roger who died apparently aged about 13 months of TB. my aunt says the poor little thing never stood a chance and the tragedy is no one in the remaining family new he ever existed until i did my research and found him. and my mothers own death. who my aunt says was in remission from breast cancer and was taken out on a motorbike by her at the time husband and they had an accident. she smashed her leg and while recovering because the body was weak the cancer came back and she died 10 months later. i only found out 2 days ago how she died.
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The saddest death in my tree has to be my Uncle George Miller, my mums brother.
He was in the army, and away one weekend. In those days they didn't know or bother about drink driving. Him and his mates were coming home from a night out. George wanted to go in the front passenger seat, but someone beat him to it. Anyway, half way back to base they stopped for a Jimmy Riddle. George siezed his oppotunity, and jumped in the front seat. A few minutes later, he was killed.
This happened in July 1958. His young wife had just given birth to his only child in the June. My mum was pregnant with me, and took it really bad. She was close to George and had been evacuated with him in the war. My dad was released from his National Service to come home and look after her.
I also have infant deaths in my tree from the 1800 and early 1900's.
Red :'(
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i have a couple
my mums brother died in 1953 age 3 years old before my mother was born he got a stomache infection and because the surgery tools were not sterile his infection after surgery got worse and after the operation he died. When my grandparents got home my uncles little sister started walking that day he died! they said it was my uncle helping her
then my grandmother died of a tumour 9 years ago at the age of 48 she would have been 59 today and if she were still alive the grandmother of 24 grandchilderen
my grandfather was found dead in his chair by my gt grandma 5 years ago at the age of 58
my gt gt gt grandfather Benjamin wileman died in 1894 1 year after the birth of my gt gt grandfather age 24 so if he had died 1 year earlier i would not be here now!
my grandmas cousin age 3 fell onto an open fire in the 1930's
my grandma's uncle Percy Marr died on a motorcycle accident in 1947 2 years after leaving the army without a wife or kids age 27
my grandmas auntie Avis Page died age 1 she was the youngest of 13 children and my grandma was named after her
there are a couple more but i will have to go home and look at the list
regards Jason
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My great granmother had two children die as infants Thomas William Hannah aged 8 months and Rose Hilda Hannah aged six months. She kept their birth certificates which were enventually passed to my mother's cousin.
My great great grandmother lost a child at 8 years old Mary Ann Hannah
My great great uncle John Albert Hannah (bert) and his wife Nellie lost a daughter aged 24 on 24th december 1954. She had only recently been married and left behind a 3 year old boy
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Just though Id tune in to the "lighter side" and have found such tales of sadness.
I too think about how our ancestors lived - children of 11 working in mines - to support their families especially if the Father had died.
Anyway, I would like to know how you find these stories out that happened in 1870s.
Ive found a Memorial to one of my ancestors who died in a mining accident in Durham, but thats about it.
Im not only interested - think Im addicted!!! To knowing EVERYTHING about my past family
you may already know about this site
http://www.dmm.org.uk/mindex.htm
as it was a few years since you posted this message
but thought i would mention it just in case :)
cherryberry
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In an early thread I think I put in about my grt grandparents sailed to NewZealand in 1877 their first born died on the journey sadly 23 month at sea .I cannot imagine what it would be like then to drop your little girl of 23 months into the water my grandfather was born that next year then they lost the next boy also 23 months he is buried in Dunedin . After remarrying in 1893 my grt grandmother had another daughter she died aged 15
Sad she lost 3 infants
looking through my tree there are many infant aged about 4 to 5 years old
I lost two brothers eldest killed at work aged 38 and the second eldest 27 so we all have sad times in our tree's
the worst one was our grandson 1996 only one day old we were 3 days into our holiday in Minorca and flew back that morning
Elizabeth
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The saddest one for me personally was the loss of a sister -- my parents' first child. I was not quite three years of age and my brother four when she died. I don't actually remember her, but have always been aware of a feeling of loss. I know that my mother carried that sorrow with her until her death at the age of 85.
Strangely, my sister-in-law who had the same name as my sister became my best friend.
Regards, Kathleen
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Hello there,
I think the saddest part of the deaths in my tree was the time i discovered, though i have no proof of all the dates yet, was the Shatford family in Kettering; The statement i read was; James Shatford died from TB along with most of his children; I have since found that two of his children were removed from the home to the safety of a childrens home called' Cottage Homes for Children' in Burton Latimer; James and his wife Lydia had 7 chldren to our knowledge and only those two survived also Lydia survived living until 1915;
James died in 1895 age abt 39yrs; we think his children died died between the years 1888 and 1910; If anyone has any information on the TB epidemic and Kettering Northants i would be very interested to know more; Eise
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Here' a slightly gentler one, but still, I think, deeply sad.
Father: Robert Speight died 1855 Q2 Gravesend 2a 202
Son: George Speight born 1855 Q3 Gravesend 2a 232
My second great grandfather Robert probably knew there was a child on the way and my great grandfather George never had a chance to meet his father. :(
However, to bring in the slightly lighter side, Maryanne, now a lone supporter of four boys, appears in the 1861 census as 'deaf'. Perhaps that was a blessing.
Paul
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i found one from 1925 in motherwell where a five year old boy died from a fractured skull after being hit by a train. i found the newspaper report and the headline was 'mother sees wee boy killed'. he had stepped out onto the railway line outside his house and had been hit on the head by the buffers. they had put him on the train to take him to glasgow but he had died as the train pulled into motherwell station.
we were so sad when we found out this story that we almost wished we hadn't found it :'(
caroline
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You may have been told at sometime "Never lean out of a railway carriage window, you might get your head knocked off....."
- well that actually happened to someone in my family tree! He was only 17 yrs old (in 1937), a cousin of my mother. He had apparently leaned out of the window to see if they were coming into Carlisle station and something struck him (rumour has it was a bridge) and took his head off.
Gruesome but true!
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Errrk, Stoney!
I'd always been told that as a child, but never heard of it actually happening. Gruesome indeed!
In my home town, the wife of a prominent early citizen (a brewer!) was killed on her way home by a train on a crossing, not far from the station. 'Tis said that she caught her heel in the line and couldn't get free in time. Her ghost is said to haunt the railway station and has terrorised a number of railway workers.
MarieC
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Two particular tragic deaths come to mind from my tree. One due to the timing and another due to the cause.
The first is my greatx5 grandfather Hugh Birnie.
He died on Christmas day 1817 aged only 31.
He had been married less than a year and died two months before the birth of his only child, my greatx4 grandfather, also Hugh Birnie.
The second is my greatx5 grandmother Jean Gray (nee Auld)
She died on 31st Oct 1876 at the grand old age of 86.
She committed suicide having forced a knife into her chest. It makes you wonder what an 86 year old woman must have been going through to commit suicide.
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Although it was only 28 years ago it was my grandad's. He went into hospital for an operation but they gave him the wrong blood type and he never survivied. But the last three years have been the worst. I have lost my twin brother three years ago and then last year in July I lost my mum, then in November my brother-in-law's mum and then two weeks later in December my dad and the very next day my mums aunt, my great auntie! To be quite honest the saddest one was my dad as he was still working and coping after losing mum, it came as such a shock
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GGG Grandparents had 9 children. The husband's grandfather died in 1838, followed by his grandmother in 1840. The first child died aged 15 days in 1841. The fifth child died in 1852 aged 3. Then the husband's mother died in 1858, followed by his father in 1860. The second child died in 1861 aged 19. The ninth child died aged 9 in 1868. The fourth child died aged 27 in 1874. Then children 6 and 7 left for New Zealand. Then the wife died in 1882. :(
Andrew
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I re-quested a look-up from RC as I couldn't find my family in 1901, bit shocked and sad to read:
Three of the children died Dec qtr 1891 page 842 (1yr)and 843,( 3 & 4yrs), the father then died 1894 and still another two un-accounted for :-[
What a ten years that lady had had but she was re-married with another baby in 1901.
Ambers
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Mine was John Derritt and wife Sara who had a son in England who died and then a daughter Isabella. They set off with their beautiful baby girl for a brand new life in Australia in the 1840's.
During the voyage, the baby got scarlet fever and died, followed by the mother dying shortly after. Poor John, all the dreams for the future shattered.....he arrived with nothing and no one.
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The saddest death in my tree has to be Annie Johnson (nee Anfield) my GG Grandmother
Shortly before Christmas in1882, pregnant with her 4th child, and having just buried her 3 year old son Frank (who died from horrific burns sustained when he fell into a vat of boiling water left unattended in the family bakery) she fell down the stairs, suffered a miscarriage and bled to death. She was just 30.
She left 2 small daughters (including my Greatgrandma) who were brought up by various aunts. My Greatgrandma said she never forgot that Christmas.
How sad is that?
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I think one of mine was my G G G uncle Robert LEES who fell into a vat of boiling water at Dunragit Creamery in Wigtownshire, Scotland and was severely scalded..languishing for nearly 2 weeks in front of his family before dying 2 days before Christmas 1894.
"he was employed as pigfeeder. It seems that in the course of his vocation he had lifted the lid off a boiler, and, on returning to the house in which the boiler was situated, he found it full of steam. While taking measures to shut off the steam he unthinkingly stepped back into a boiler, which contained boiling water to the depth of about three feet, and was severely scalded. He was conveyed home, and medical aid was summoned"
http://sarndra.com/scotland2.html
Cheers
Sarndra
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I think the saddest death in my tree is that of my g uncles in 1940. They were Michael born 1938 and Francis born 1940. They were brothers and both died within 6 months of each other. Michael fell down the stairs trying to get into an air raid shelter, and Francis died of pneumonia as a result of constantly living in the shelters. Francis died 9 days before Chritmas. My g granny who was their mother, mustve been devastated, losing two children in 6 months :'( Then of course she lost her mother 3 months after that.
We can se the phots but we really have no idea how easy we have it :-\
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My Great Great Uncle William Grime died in 1909 aged only 17 from TB and exhaustion, he was a cotton piecer at Kirkpatrick's Mill (I think) in Hindley. Less than two weeks later, his sister and my GG Aunt Emily also died of TB aged 25. They were from a family of 10 children and are buried together in the cemetery in Hindley with their mother and father Elizabeth and James Dalton Grime. Judging by the the size of the house the whole family lived in I'm surprised any of them lived at all...
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Most of the deaths in my tree have saddened me. Mainly because they aren't here!
My paternal grandmother died when my Father was just 9 years old, Leaving 6 children, 3 boys, 24, 11 and 9 and 3 girls, 5 and twins 3. She died from Breast Cancer and my grandfather had to stop working because he had no one else to look after the children. My Dad often says about how they rarely had 2 pennies to rub together. :(
A ggggrandmother was buried 8 days before her child was christened. and I've had many babies being buried a few days after being christened (so I'm assuming still-birth)
And my 3xgreat grandparents had 14 children, 7 of which didn't make it to 10!
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I've had many babies being buried a few days after being christened (so I'm assuming still-birth)
I think these are more likely to be infant deaths rather than still-births - a still-born child would not have been baptised.
Regards, Bill
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I've had many babies being buried a few days after being christened (so I'm assuming still-birth)
I think these are more likely to be infant deaths rather than still-births - a still-born child would not have been baptised.
Regards, Bill
Thanks very much. I didn't know that fact! Because now still-born babies are baptised/christened!
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One of the saddest deaths in my tree was that of my great grandfather Harry Mount. He volunteered in 1915 aged 42, served in the Royal Engineers until discharged as unfit for further service on Boxing Day 1916. He was too ill to work again. He died in August 1917 leaving a widow and three children aged 8, 5 and 3.
His wife had three brothers and two sisters. Two out of the three brothers died in the Great War and all three sisters became war widows.
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By the age of four I had witnessed my family losing my eldest sister at 24 my brother at 17 and my sister at 17. (TB) I have memory of being in the church, being held up by my Dad to look at a brass plate, and not knowing why.
I was only four yet I still feel the loss at nearly 70. What if they had lived, what would our family be like now?
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Hi Meldrew,
As I posted here earlier, mine was the loss of my parents' first child -- a girl. As you, I often wonder what my life would have been like if she had lived.
Regards, Kathleen
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Three instances come to mind for me;
1) A gg Aunt's niece who drowned in the late 1800's. She was 12, and was collecting shells, when she fell into the water, and the weight of the shells she had gathered in her dressed kept her under water.
2) My g grandfather's son broke his neck diving into Botany Bay, and drowned. The gg grandfather later remarried and 2 of his others sons, aged 6 and 13 both drowned in Botany Bay the same day in 1922.
3) Same g grandfather (bad run of luck!). Another son 18 old, tried to enlist in WW1 in 1915, but was rejected. He tried again when 19, and was accepted. After training sailed to England then to France. Only 2 weeks after joining his unit at The Front, he was "wounded with gun shot wounds to abdomen, shoulder and thigh. He was operated on immediately but owing to the severe internal injuries he did not recover".
No doubt I will find some others to pst as well.
Les
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whilst researching my dads side of my tree i came across the death of my great grandfather aged 35 haemorrhage from a wound in his throat inflicted by himself with a razor whilst temporarily insane.
then researching my mams side i have my great great gran died aged 48 suicide by drowning whilst temporarily insane, apparently she turned on all the taps in the house then walked to the river and drowned herself.
also on my mams side my great great great grandfather died aged 47 committed suicide by hanging whilst in a state of temporary insanity,
then a couple of weeks ago my gran told me that stanley worked on the farm, when i said whoose stanley, she said he was her uncle, but he shot himself.
so four suicides 3 or them in the same family.
karen
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Sad, but not like some of the above ... my great grandfather was born six months after the death of his father, and great grandfathers twin died soon after birth ...
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This one isn't as tragic as others in this thread, but I can announce that I have found my first thunderbolt victim.
My greatx5 grandfather, John Bruce, was struck by lightning on the 17th May 1864 at New Pitsligo (Aberdeenshire). He was 69.
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My great grandmother burnt to death in a house fire in 1963, in Sheffield. It's thought that she caught fire with the candle that she used by her bed (she was 83 and set in her ways). It was a terraced house and there was hardly anything left. She was completely incinerated.
I guess she had a good innings but a terrible way to go...
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Death of my Irish great-great-great-grandfather's first wife who died in Coventry of an outbreak of asiatic cholera in 1849. Closely followed by the death, also in Coventry, of my paternal great-great-grandfather of peritonitus and the DTs in 1859, his widow being pregnant at the time and the child born posthomously.She then married the farm shepherd and had four more children, making nine in all.
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We always believed my dad was an only child but I discovered that Grandma had a second son when my dad was about 6 years old.
He only lived for 8 months and he died in 1945 of 'Chronic Suppurative Bronchitis' which must have been just awful and so sad.
Dad's half-brother was never mentioned by Grandma or Dad.
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Thats similar to my granddad. Just recently we found out he had a brother, Henry McCartney, who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in Corby Steelqorks, in 1946, aged just 15 :(
He was the last male we know of with the McCartney name. My granddad had all daughters, so unfortunately our branch of the McCartney family has died out with Henry :(
It seems this stuff is inevitable in any family tree. makes you relaise how lucky we are to even have got here :-\
Matt
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Um .... er, wasn't there a McCartney who used to strum a bit with some mates in a place in Liverpool, wasn't it the Cavern, or something like that ? Dunno what happened to him ! Probably poor, and down and out now !!
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Moderator comment: locking this topic now as it is well past the 20 pages.