Why so many family deaths and moves out of Forest in 1870s? (General)

by Roger Griffiths, Tuesday, October 10, 2006, 04:44 (6620 days ago) @ Ashton

I'm no expert, but the death rate was appaling. My family was in The Forest in the 19th Century. So I trawled the Parish Registers of St John's, Cinderford. As well as the rector/vicar there were two curates. They were kept very busy burying people.

My GGrandmother had 12 children. She lost second son within a year in 1861. That is probably nothing special. She lost two daughters to scarlet fever in 1871. One was about four, the other three. She was lucky.

My GGrandfathers sister Mary Waite/Griffiths had between 11 and 13 children. About 5 died in childhood.

The population was exploding, and there was immigration from Wales, and there was a lack of housing. Although capitalists came in to open up large scale coal mines (Richard Crawshay for instance) it was difficult to make much money. Life was very hard for ordinary folk.

Roger