Childhood deaths in early 1866 - Forest of Dean FHT Forum

In reviewing my family history on the Daniel family of Whitchurch, I found burials for several children who died in the period 4-3-1866 to 8-4-1866. Has any other researcher come across an epidemic or childhood disease which obviously had a high mortality rate in this period. The ages of these children ranged from 11 months to 9 years old.

Lyn

Likely to be Scarlet Fever. Two from my family in 1871.

Roger

Hello Roger,

Thank you for your response. It must have been terrible for the family to lose four children in as many weeks.

Lyn

Hi Lyn

My great grandparents buried their eldest three daughters at Viney Hill

Annie on 16 November 1877 aged 7 years
Ellen on 18 November 1877 aged 4 years
Matilda on 24 November 1877 aged 22 months

I think that would have left me heart broken.

Mary

The summer of 1865 saw several family members dying in Weston under Penyard, but there were adults too. I'm wondering if this in some way led to several family members emmigrating to the US. My great-grandmothers sister had seen two sons and her son in law die in a very short space of time, maybe in another age they looked to God and a new religion, they became Mormons and sailed to America in the summer of 1866. Maybe the illnesses were blamed on modern living, and that the new faith would keep them safe.

I'm waiting to have my gall bladder removed, troublesome stones, and it left me wondering just how easy it was to die not so very long ago. Without health you have nothing. Fred

Interesting thought, Fred. Death was a constant neighbour until after WW2 really, and relatives hurt. Only have to look at Queen Victoria after the death of Prince Albert in 1861. She became a recluse for decades. Nowadays, death is a rare event in most peoples lives. My mother died in '95 and my father in '80. No one else in the meantime, I'm probably next, hoot.

My great grandparents had 12 children between 1858 and 1883. They lost 3 in childhood, pretty lucky on average. My great grandfathers sister had 13 and lost a lot more than 3.

Roger

They could have died of anything, infant mortality rose during the industrial revolution and it was common for children to die in infancy. You might be able to find the infant mortality rates by surfing the web or looking in any social history book of the time.

There were a lot of deaths during this time. Mostly from pneumonia and chickenpox.
My grandmother had fourteen children and four died: one from pneumonia and two from chickenpox. The day the third one was buried, my grandparents came home to find that the four year old had had her head shut in a gate and had died. We don't know how lucky we are today.

Eddy Ayres

One of my relatives was born 1/7/1875 and died 29/12/1877 of scarletina.

Thank you to everyone for your comments on this subject. Perhaps I'll never know exactly why they died. Indeed, many people died of various diseases back then.
Would 'cause of death' appear on death certificates at that time?
Lyn

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