Have you ever found someone and wondered about them??

[Viktoria]

I remember reading a book many ,many years ago-
 one Mum would have been shocked about, it being the story of a well to-do unmarried mother and how she came "down in the world" It was Victorian times and there was some help but very little.Because she was well spoken it was assumed she was a widow and  so she described herself as such when applying to the charitable society for aid. Some remark was passed which made the assumption that well to do mothers felt grief more strongly than poorer women at the death of a child !!!! In other words if you were on your uppers and literally destitute you were not too bothered when your baby died but if  in comfortable circumstances you really suffered .When you think how little contact some posh women had with their children it beggars belief whichever way you look at it.
Life is not fair is it ?It never was but some things are less fair than others, you know what I mean. Viktoria.

[nort]

Sometimes when trawling through parish records i come across an unusual entry in the burials,the last one i remember was 'Man found dead on the road-age about 50 yrs'.Made me wonder who was he,where was he from,where was he going,was he a tramp? Sometimes its a body found in the river,was it a suicide from upriver or a sailor lost overboard.Makes you think doesn't it.

Steve

[Windsor87]

I am a postgraduate history student, so I'm always looking into people of the past, but rarely the individual common man.

I did have one chance earlier this year to use my family tree interest (with the help of this website) to try and track down Scottish emigrants to Montreal in 1846.
The case which I sought help for on this website was the Robertson family of Monymusk who set sail for a better life in Montreal. Alexander Robertson and his wife set sail for Montreal with their family in 1846, and the voyage was recorded in the diary of their son, Charles. His mother died during the voyage, and the account says his father died not along after arriving in Montreal.

So I wanted to know what happened to Charles and his siblings. We did find them on the other side, but sadly Charles' fate remains unknown - but he survived for a time anyway.
More interesting was that Charles' sister returned to Scotland, and erected a stone in memory of her parents.

Incidently I was made aware of the Robertson family due to the the tutor's own book. She had no idea what happened to the family after arriving in Montreal (except for the father), so she was surprised when I was able to take the story as far as I did, and she was thrilled that there was a memorial to the couple in Scotland too.

I did give Rootschat the credit...just in case anyone else tries to accuse me of cheating.

Windsor87

[rutht22000]

I've got several in my tree that just seem to stand out from the rest - my great aunt Alice was one.  She died on Valentine's Day 1941. She was profoundly deaf from birth but managed to play county level hockey when she was in her 20s and she always struck a chord with me.  Then I saw a photograph of her of when she was 13 and she was my absolute double to the point of being quite eerie.

On the other side of that family there were 6 members of the family wiped out in 1940 when their house was a direct hit - from 60 year old grandma, her children aged 29, 20, 18, and 16 and her 3 year old grand-daughter.  The little one's father died about a week later in Hospital from his injuries (infection from metal railings that were embedded in his feet when he was thrown from the site of the blast).

You can't help but wonder how the siblings that survived coped with losing 6 members of their family in one night and for him to die that way knowing his wife and child had just died too.  My cousin is the absolute image as well of the 16 year old that lost her life that night.   That particular story has always struck with me - literally half a family gone in a few minutes.....

In the space of 8 weeks in 1903 my great grandmother also lost her daughter, a 17 year grand-daughter and her own husband as well has seeing the birth of 2 other grand-daughters as well. 

I always try to recognise them as each and every life is part of our trees no matter how short it was.

[kateblogs]

Lal - I do that too, it would be so sad if they just disappeared from history. I do feel for their parents though; to lose one baby would be horrendous, when I see couples who lost numerous children I do wonder how they managed to keep going.

[maggbill]

Fascinating reading all your stories - I was beginning to wonder if I was becoming a bit obsessed with this family history stuff - now I know it is a common affliction - to begin to feel that you actually in a way get to know these long gone individuals!!!! 

What also struck a chord was it made me think of a website I saw the other day - if i remember correctly, it was one of the BBC links... about the 200 or so "John Doe" bodies found in England over the past 10 years or so - many of them being unidentified men dying horrendously run over by trains.  There were sort of "identikit" type drawings, - and it just really hit so hard, that no matter what a life they had - they once were loved and cherished by a family!!!   oh dear... better get back to the positive aspect of how we make sure many are not forgotten!!! 

[Deb D]

This has nothing to do with infant deaths, ... but I did have someone I wondered about!

While I was searching for the ship which brought my gt-grandfather to Australia, it suddenly dawned on me that    gt-grandad could quite easily have come under suspicion of those investigating the Jack The Ripper case!

Gt-grandad was the son of a surgeon who practised in Poplar.  He had dropped out of Cambridge, and at some stage he completed enough studies at some sort of medical school, to become a pharmacist or chemist.
And I couldn't find him on shipping lists, so it appeared he'd been footloose and fancy-free around the same time as Jack The Ripper was terrorising London!

'T'was quite disturbing ... until at last I found him on a ship arriving in Melbourne, well before The Ripper's last victims met their Maker!

[MarieC]

That must have been quite startling for awhile, Deb! 

Glad you found an alibi with him safe in this country while the Ripper was still doing his dastardly deeds!

MarieC

[Kevinshouse]

I found this gravestone in the tiny church where my daughter married last Christmas -
Allan and Mary Morrow parents of -
Joseph Scafton Morrow died 1856 aged 2
Jane Morrow died 1859 aged 5
Joseph Morrow died 1859 aged 1
Jane Morrow died 1865 aged 6 months
Robert Morrow died 1868 aged 3 months
Joseph Morrow died 1868 aged 11 months
Allan Morrow died 1869 aged 9 years
Mary Hannah Morrow died 1870 aged 10 months
Jane Isabella died 1875 aged 9 months
Mary Jane died 1877 aged 4 months
Hannah died 1880 aged 8 years
William died 1882 aged 20 years killed by a fall of stone at Seaham Colliery.

These parents never saw one of their children marry

Regards Susan