Genealogy Chat

Hi all,

Do any of you knowledgeable folks out there know of any diseases around at this time that could have wiped out certainly 2 members of a family - maybe more?

I am having problems locating relatives that I have found in the 1851 census - but cannot locate in the 1861 census. Deaths are just a thought, but it must be something that is considered.

I have found recorded deaths of people of the same name as the 'missing' relations, but of course with deaths it is difficult to be sure that they are indeed your relatives!

I know how knowledgeable you all are - so thought I would pick a few brains to see if you could point me in the right direction on this.

Many thanks.

Elaine

Small pox outbreaks were common in these times, especially in large towns and cities. Where were your ancestors living?

Bob

Have you any idea what age group we are talking about here? Sanitation was poor during that period for a great many people and illnesses like TB, pneumonia and bronchal complaints were rife. Before you assume that the absence on the 1861 census was due to a death, look for the person in question in later census returns. I have found a few relatives still alive in 1871 who had appeared on the 1841 census but who were missing for the 2 census returns in between. Absences could be for any number of reasons not necessarily death.

I've lost count of the number of ancestors who died of TB in the 1800's and into the 1900's. One family lost the father and 2 little girls within 2 weeks. Poor sanitation and over crowding caused the spread of contagious diseases.

Sue

Hi Paul - they were living in Kettering Northants in the 1851 census. I have never been so I am not aware wether Kettering could be considered a large town! I think that it may have been a market town though.

Hi Pamela - the age range would have been between 22-50+. In the 1861 census I can find the husband/father - and in 1871 one of the children turn up in Nottingham area where I live. But I cannot understand what happened to the rest of the family. Most were female but one or more were male.

Elaine

With 10 years between censuses they could've died about 9 years apart. This means they didn't necessarily die of a contagious disease.

Have you tried searching for all the people born in Kettering in the year your people were born & scrolling through. In 1851 & 1861 censuses there were only about 400 born in Kettering c1850. Although Kettering is huge now in 1887 its population was only 11,095, so even smaller in the mid 1800s. Info from Wikipedia.

Or searching for your people with only the shire they were born in. Sometimes people will be quite specific in a census & write the small district of a town they were born in.

I'm assuming you've looked for the females under married names.

Ozi.

Sorry, Sue - didnt meant to exclude you from my reply - we must have overlapped!

I am pretty sure that they lived in overcrowded accommodation - the father was only a tailor.

So looks like TB or smallpox would be quite realistic causes for them to 'disappear'?

How did you find the information? Was it just searching and ordering certs?

I have an unconfirmed record of death for the son who has vanished - but can find no record of death for the mother or other siblings!

Elaine

Hi Ozi,

Yes - I appreciate the hugh time difference and the fact that they may well have died years apart - I am just clutching at straws here.

I dont know how to search for the females under married names as I have no knowledge of them marriying at all!

They were not BORN in Kettering between 1851-1861 but i can find no trace of them on the census'. Of two names - one of them was born in Kettering in about 1810 and the other about 1839. Please would you tell me how I can search for the deaths of people born in Kettering in these years - I would much appreciate any help I can get.

Elaine

Hi Sue,

I have just done a quick seach for the two main names I am looking for in the 1881 census - and no joy.

The names I am looking for are Rachel Wood [c1810] and Stephen Wood [c1839]

However, I dont seem to have the energy that subscribers to Genes Reunited have - and having to rise at 5.30am tomorrow - I am going to go to bed VERY shortly. Please dont think that this means that I have lost interest or am failing to reply - I will get back to you first thing tomorrow morning or whenever I get a break at work - if you have any replies for me!

Elaine

Hello Elaine,

I realise you may have gone off to bed. Is this your family?

1851 England Census
Name: Stephen Wood
Age: 11
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1840
Relation: Son
Father's Name: Isaiah
Mother's Name: Rachael
Gender: Male
Where born: Norths, Geddington
Civil parish: Kettering
Town: Kettering
County/Island: Northamptonshire
Country: England
Street Address:

Occupation:

Condition as to marriage:

Disability:

View image
Registration district: Kettering
Sub-registration district: Kettering
ED, institution, or vessel: 6f
Neighbors: View others on page
Household schedule number: 60
Household Members:
Name Age
Isaiah Wood 39
Rachael Wood 41
Stephen Wood 11
Rhoda Wood 10
Alice Wood 7
Alfred Wood 5

Here's a good possibility for Rhoda considering her children's names.

1871 England Census
Name: Rhoda Priest
Age: 29
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1842
Relation: Wife
Spouse's Name: John
Gender: Female
Where born: Kettering, Nottinghamshire, England
Civil parish: St Mary
County/Island: Nottinghamshire
Country: England
Street Address:

Occupation:


Registration district: Nottingham
Sub-registration district: Sherwood
ED, institution, or vessel: 5
Neighbors: View others on page
Household schedule number: 44
Household Members:
Name Age
John Priest 34 - French Polisher
Rhoda Priest 29
Alice W Priest 11
Florence Eda Priest 10
Rachel A Priest 7
John Thos Priest 4


???????
Births Jun 1863
PRIEST Rachel Anne Nottingham 7b 221

There was a cholera epidemic in the UK in 1854.

At least one of my rellies succumbed.

Google "cholera epidemic".

So Iasiah/Isaiah is on his own but still recorded as married in 1861.

I guess you've got this?

Marriages Mar 1838
Clark Priscilla Kettering 15 336
Humphrey Ann Kettering 15 336
Miller James Kettering 15 336
Palmer John Kettering 15 336
Panter Joseph Kettering 15 336
Richardson Rachel Kettering 15 336 <<<<<<<<<<
WILSON Rebecca Kettering 15 336
WOOD Isaiah Kettering 15 336 <<<<<<<<<<<


So it looks like they all might've ended up in Nottingham.
????
Deaths Sep 1879
Wood Isaiah 70 Nottingham 7b 143

There are several infectious diseases which have historically reached epidemic proportions. Mortality rates are for untreated cases (or 19th cent treatment - same difference).

Plague is probably the most well-known, but the last major outbreak in Europe was in London 1666. It is caused by a bacterium transmitted by a rodent flea bite. Plague is still endemic in the SW USA, with about a dozen cases p.a., with often one (untreated) fatality.

Tuberculosis is a chronic bacterial infection (where the B of TB comes from), and is about 50% fatal. It is an air-borne disease, and usually attacks the lungs, resulting in bloody sputum and general wasting.

Smallpox, an air-borne virus, with 20-80% mortality - typically 33%. Highly infectious. There are some similar viruses, with much lower martality rates, the most famous being cowpox. This is so similar that an acquired antibody immunity following an attack of cowpox also conferred immunity against smallpox. This was noted by Jenner, who introduced his vaccination scheme of infecting people with the low (<1%) mortality cowpox to protect against smallpox. The word vaccination comes from the Latin word (vacca) for cow. There is no other reservoir (e.g., plague ridden rat fleas) for smallpox and the disease has now been eradicated.

Cholera is bacterial infection, usually caused by drinking contaminated water. It produces severe fevers, which can be quickly fatal. Mortality 50-60%. An 1866 outbreak in London was traced back to a particular water pump in a brilliant bit of epidemolical detective work, and prompt action against the water company limited the death toll to less than 6000 (and incidentally confirmed the water borne means of infection).

Typhoid (or enteric) fever. Mortality 10-30% (but can be higher). Caused by a Salmonella bacterium. This killed Queen Victoria's hubby Albert. Typically transmitted in food contaminated by fecal matter from an infected person. A well-known transmitter was Mary Mallon (Typhoid Mary), a chronic carrier (although not a sufferer apparently) who insisted on working as a cook (the pay was much higher than other domestic work she could do, even going to the length of changing her name to get jobs. She caused 3 deaths and several dozen cases, and was eventually imprisoned under quarantine laws for life. She lived on an island in the middle of the Hudson.

Typhus has nothing to do with Typhoid fever, although both can cause a rash of red spots. Typhus is caused by a Rickettsia micro-parasite. It is carried in the feces of lice, and the patient injects themself by scratching the feces into their skin. Mortality 10-40%. Also known as gaol fever, It killed the diarist Anne Frank in Bergen Belsen. There was a major outbreak in the late 1840s in famine ravaged Ireland, whence it spread to England and was called the Irish fever.

Influenza - swine flu. The Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-1920 probably got its name as it got greater press coverage in neutral Spain, unlike the censored press coverage in the rest of Europe. (It wouldn't surprise me to learn it was called the French flu in Spain.) This killed abt 50-100 million people. It caused a fatal over-reaction of the bodies immune system, so young adults with the best immune systems had the worst death rates. There are non-human reservoirs for flu, e.g., swine, birds, and it seems that some development in these populations, followed by an interspecies transfer contributes to the spread and virulence of the disease. Besides which, it seems that flu is a tricky virus for someone to get the right antibodies for. Wouldn't apply to the mid 19th cent.

Epidemic type deaths do sometimes hit families. Helen Beaton MS Massie was my g grandad's aunt. I've never written off for the actual memorial inscription, so I don't know the c.o.d.

MONQUHITTER
Names and dates on Stone Number 188:

Mary BEATON 1849
Isabella BEATON 27 Feb 1849
Helen BEATON 25 Feb 1849
Ann BEATON 10 Mar 1849
Thomas BEATON 16 Mar 1849
Jean Emslie BEATON 7 Mar 1849
George BEATON 29 Mar 1849
James BEATON 1 Mar 1849
Helen MASSIE 29 Dec 1871
William BEATON 23 Aug 1873

http://www.abdnet.co.uk/mi-index/

I know there was also a cholera epidemic in the late summer of 1849 in Clitheroe, Lancashire - not long ago there was a short write-up about it in the free local paper we get once a fortnight.

I've still got a typed version of the article (sent it to someone who asked about some of my local gravestone transcriptions by e-mail) which says there were 14,000 who died in London and 21 in Clitheroe so, if it was on an epidemic scale, it must surely have cropped up elsewhere in the country.

Hi Ozi,

You were so busy whilst I was fast asleep!!!

yes that is my family you have found and the correct marriage detail. This is the Rachel that I have lost [Rachel Richardson] - not Rachel Priest.

you may well have found Rhoda - as her brother met and married a woman who lived with the parish of St Mary in Nottingham - before they moved to Ilkeston.

If I have no other luck - I wil order the cert and see who her father is recorded as.

It is odd that Isaiah is on his own - I wonder where they went? It could be him who dies in Nottingham aged 70 - but without finding family in Nottingham it would be difficult to prove.

Thanks for looking up details - if you have any further ideas or suggestions I would welcome them.

Elaine

Thank you to all who have replied to my thread. I just knew you would all be fountains of knowledge!!!

Please keep any ideas coming in - if you have any more. I will print off the thread and read to try and digest the info you have given me.

Thank you so much!!

hi elaine
baptisms to john priest and rhoda wood
alice florence emma rachel annie and john thomas all on 6 10 1867 notts holy trinity at wellington terrace
marriage john to rhoda 9 1860 notts st nicholas
regards sharon

Hi Bob,

My reply to Paul was for you - should have said Bob. Dont know where Paul came from. My apologies!!!

Elaine