What was the saddest death in your Tree ?

[liverpool annie]

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

[Man of Kent]

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

[rarebit]

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

[MarieC]

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

[Koromo]

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.

[Comosus]

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

[w105uk aka Margi :-)]

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

[Gadget]

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

[NIFTYFIFTY47]

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.