Putrid Fever and Cholera ... (General)

by mrsbruso , Tuesday, March 06, 2012, 23:52 (4640 days ago) @ rookancestrybest

I am certain of the date of the letter, but EBV does say "like putrid or black fever", so it may have just been something that was similarly serious.

In her letters, she discusses several outbreaks of illnesses -- probably influenza in a few instances. She also complained of fleas and bad coal in the "Club Rows" in Cwmtillery, where they lived briefly.

What info are you looking for in the Garn? I have excel copies of a few databases which might contain useful info and I would be happy to look for you.

I've had some difficulty with the Garn area myself. The works were closed periodically, and many of the miners went back and forth between there and other places for limited periods. Although my great grandparents supposedly lived in Garndiffaith for a number of years, Mum just said "Pontypool" (close enough when you're living 3,000 miles away), my ggrandmother was born when the works were closed and her parents were staying temporarily in Cwmtillery, so her birth was registered as Abergavenney. It was further complicated by the fact that she was baptised in the Tredegar primitive methodist circuit.

There are also lots of family references to Trevethin and Varteg so it all seems rather complicated. I was relieved when they returned to the same cottage from whence they came, in Blakeney.

(In an vaguely relevent aside, a friend is from Co. Laoise in Ireland. She became so tired of repeating it and trying to explain where it is, she now just tells everyone she's from Tipperary, since everyone has heard of that. Three generations from now no one will remember she grew up on Slieve Blum and be looking for her somewhere in Limerick.)