Researching Family History Can Be So Tragic

[BumbleB]

Anyone visiting Burton Hospital in Burton on Trent will know exactly where the Poor House was located, as you have to pass the buildings to access the main entrance to the current hospital. 

[coombs]

In regards to illegitimacy discoveries in FH, I find the anonymity of fathers of illegitimate ancestors, (or ancestor siblings/cousins who had illegitimate children) quite fascinating, the unknown man, who could he be? DNA testing is helping people find more fathers of such children, on top of looking for possible fathers through a paper trial such as bastardy bonds, maintenance orders etc.

I read in a book that finding potential fathers of illegitimate children is more likely before the 1834 Poor Law amendment.

[suey]

This must be why my ancestor, George Scott Blenkinsopp died in The Govan Poor House in 1869, rather than his own home (Marlow Street in Glasgow).

He had developed Typhus fever, and after his death the family had no stable income and moved back to Sunderland lived in a number of slum dwellings.

JackB

The workhouse was about the only place you got any kind of medical care.  Unless you were wealthy you couldn’t afford a doctor.

[suey]

So many in mine and husbands trees.  Mostly gleaned from newspaper reports.

Ggg grandfather accidentally shot and killed his son.  He later died from a thigh wound, thought to have been gored by a bull.

The sister of a 2x g aunt, unmarried but turned up on the doorstep hiding a pregnancy.  She reportedly took to her bed for several days until the sister discovered the deceased baby in a box under the bed.

Another 2x g aunt…her baby was unwell, doctor called and prescribed a medicine.  A young neighbour was sent later in the day to collect the medicine from the chemist.  She had been dosing the baby for two days, his condition worsened and he died.  The tragedy was that there were two families with the same surname.  Both had been prescribed the same medicine but in very different doses.  The mother had unknowingly overdosed her baby.

Sister of my husbands aunt, dropped a lighted lamp, her clothing caught alight and she died from the burns.

And a murder…young woman, aged 16 on her way home from a party.  Her brother wouldn’t walk her home because he said she shouldn’t be there, she wasn’t invited.  She was attacked and killed, her body found the

[frostyknight]

In one branch, I have a couple who had 9 children. I've found 8 of them, I suspect the missing child was probably a premature birth which was never registered.

The couple lost 2 children in 1875, one aged 2 years, the other aged 6 months. In 1878 they lost a 2 month old baby. The eldest, a girl, died of rheumatic fever in 1889 aged 18. But their worst year was 1887.  That year started off with the loss of a 3 year old boy in January, followed by the death of another boy in March. That was quickly followed by the death of the father, John, in April at the age of 46. Finally, in August, another girl, aged 8, died. The mother lived until 1919, the remaining son living into the 1920s.

I honestly don't know how they, or others, coped with so much loss.

[JackB015725]

Dear God that sounds awful