Always expect the unexpected!

[pinefamily]

Miscarriages are sometimes the reason for gaps in births of children.
On a similar note, it only occurred to me the other day possible reasons why certain individuals in our trees didn't marry and/or have children. I'm sure we've all got these ancestors. In the past, I had mostly assumed I just hadn't found a marriage yet. But reading a newspaper article from 1824 where ot mentioned that two of a particular couple's children were "idiots", and one of those was also "crippled", it made me think. How many of those ancestors in our trees who only have a baptism and a burial were physically or mentally handicapped in some way? Or even perhaps attracted to the same sex?

[Top-of-the-hill]

  When I was following up the distant relatives a few years ago, I noted in the 1861 census that a 34 yr old man was listed as deaf. He appeared to be living alone, probably in a very poor dwelling and was a yardman on a farm. He died 2 years later, and I found that he committed suicide. Most of his close family had died or left the village, and I guess he was a lonely man.

[coombs]

Miscarriages are sometimes the reason for gaps in births of children.
On a similar note, it only occurred to me the other day possible reasons why certain individuals in our trees didn't marry and/or have children. I'm sure we've all got these ancestors. In the past, I had mostly assumed I just hadn't found a marriage yet. But reading a newspaper article from 1824 where ot mentioned that two of a particular couple's children were "idiots", and one of those was also "crippled", it made me think. How many of those ancestors in our trees who only have a baptism and a burial were physically or mentally handicapped in some way? Or even perhaps attracted to the same sex?

I had a work colleague who in the old days I think would be described as a "moron" in medical terms. He was born 1944 so would be almost 80 now but he did not have his mind on the job at the best of times and had a mental age of 8 or 9, and could be disruptive. He was put on cleaning mainly as he was next to useless on anything else, when he prepared food he was slow and the finished product was messy. One supervisor used to pick on him a bit, he may have thought "Why is this company employing such a person?". His mum had a difficult birth and he was starved of oxygen. I did feel sorry for him though as he was challenged. He was known to occasionally pick up dropped food and eat it, such as a dried up chip or raw prawn, and he was know to grab people, especially women by the arm quite hard, in a way he saw as friendly, and he got spoken to about it.

[Mvann]

Susieroe I'd just learnt that many true  Romany families have Indian or Pakistani origins .

 Helping a friend whose matches had caravan dwelling ancestors but they turned out not to be descended from the Romany line that some had on their trees . Ethnicity helped confirm that they were from a Welsh line with same surname !

brigidmac, I've only today received an email with your post, it seems I didn't keep up with the thread.
May I ask a long shot: is your friend from Leicester? My Mum remembered Grandma taking her to visit a relative in a caravan in Leicester circa 1920s. She told me definitely not gypsy but that there were beautiful things there like china and glass that I know Romanies collect. Did you ever hear of a caravan community in Leicester?

Susieroe
There were some in belgrave, Leicester at one time. From memory, some were fairground families.

[SMJ]

It's worth considering the large travelling communities associated with the expansion of the railways and before that the canals.

I have a branch of my family that followed the building of the Great Western line from Shrewsbury to South Wales and back over a period of 70 years or so. They started with simple labouring jobs progressing to Signal Engineers then to Porters and Station Managers as they became older and less able to do the more manual work. The clue was all of there abodes where associated with or near railway depots.

Any where in the midlands there is the likelihood of canal navies and bargemen being away from home for long periods of time or the family travelling together. I have a William Randle Potts in my tree born 1841 in Bedworth on the Coventry Canal not baptised until 1852 - mother & father were married in 1845. Father's occupation in 1851- Boatman.

So although not true travellers, the lifestyle is similar.

[coombs]

It looks like I may have cracked a long term brickwall in the term of a marriage of William Mayhew to Elizabeth Bridges. They had children in Hacheston, Suffolk, and usefully that parish gave the mother's maiden name.

He was born 1786 in Sweffling and she in about 1781. I found an Eliz Bridges wed a Robert Scott in Wickham Market in 1806, and an Elizabeth Scot wed a William May in October 1809 in Wickham Market. Wonder if William May is a mistake for Mayhew. The original will reveal more. Robert Scott died in 1807 in Pettistree, aged 33.

Another thing that was unexpected and shows that a couple who are your ancestors may have been married before.

[Treetotal]

Some interesting stories here. My Father-In-Law was a Master Rigger who made ships ropes on the docks. We were watching a documentary on TV about the Whaling Industry in Hull. It showed a film clip of the Piquod in Hull Dock being rigged for the filming of "Moby Dick" and there was OH's Father up the mast doing the rigging.
Carol

[susieroe]

Susieroe I'd just learnt that many true  Romany families have Indian or Pakistani origins .

 Helping a friend whose matches had caravan dwelling ancestors but they turned out not to be descended from the Romany line that some had on their trees . Ethnicity helped confirm that they were from a Welsh line with same surname !

MVann, thank you for confirming that, I had wondered about fairgrounds. Grandma's dad worked at "Bungy" Richards foundry in Belgrave so a connection nearby. I'm going to look into the wider family a bit more intensely now.

brigidmac, I've only today received an email with your post, it seems I didn't keep up with the thread.
May I ask a long shot: is your friend from Leicester? My Mum remembered Grandma taking her to visit a relative in a caravan in Leicester circa 1920s. She told me definitely not gypsy but that there were beautiful things there like china and glass that I know Romanies collect. Did you ever hear of a caravan community in Leicester?

Susieroe
There were some in belgrave, Leicester at one time. From memory, some were fairground families.

MVann, thank you for confirming that. Grandma's dad worked at "Bungy" Richards foundry in Belgrave so a connection there. I must look a bit closer into the wider family connections.

[ansteynomad]

On the subject of children, my great grandmother Emily Smith had two children in quick succession before she married, although both died in infancy.

She was about six months pregnant when she married in December 1868 and gave birth to a son in June 1869. There was then a six year gap before she gave birth to twins in June 1875. There were no further children.  So far so good.

Then I did a DNA test and discovered that the twins were not fathered by her husband, but by a man from the other end of the county. At that point I'd done thirty years research and I didn't recognise any of my close matches!

I'm about to suggest to a descendant of the first son that they do a DNA test, just in case Emily was carrying another man's child at the time she married.

 So many questions. Did she know? Did her husband know? Did the twins know? Did the father know?  There can be no doubt. The resemblance, even in the present generation, is striking.