Stillbirths

[mrs_tease]

my gran had a stillborn daughter ( the only girl out of 8 boys!)
she was born in 1936 at home, the birth or death was never registered but while going through the suitcase I came across a receipt from a funeral directors.

It gave the plot number for the baby.

although it was a public grave my gran had to pay 3 shillings and 6d for the burial.
I have tracked the plot down although there are no markers, the workman I spoke to said that the public graves ran all round the permitter of the graveyard and would never be disturbed.

[Phay]

Well done Steve and Mrs_tease on your discoveries, and to your mum Steve at finally gettin some closure on a very sad event.
I know that my own mum would have dearly loved to visit her child's grave, but it was never to be.  Mum's ill health did not allow for long journeys as it would have been for her to the cemetery.
So after mum's death in 2002, we decided that her ashes should be scattered at the same spot as my sister was all those years ago.  Figured that we the surviving children had her in life, so let her spirit rest with the child that she loved and missed so dearly.

hugs to all

Px

[Gillg]

To go back to Lizzie F's original query, in the late 1800s (so maybe a similar time to her gt-gt-grandmother) my gt-grandmother had 10 children, 6 boys and 4 girls.  Sadly only 1 of the 6 boys survived beyond infancy, and 3 of them were stillborn.  Apparently my great-aunts were sent to the cemetery each time with the remains of the stillborn babies in a box, which was then buried by the sexton in the next grave he dug!  Even the little boys who lived for a few days or weeks are not named in the family grave record or mentioned on the family tombstone, so maybe they went the same way, too. 

So sad, but childbirth and indeed childhood was a risky business in those days.

Regards,
Gillg