Genealogy Chat

Kim West Penwith is where I found the death of a lady who suffocated in a cart of feathers!!(Also a woman who died from drinking boiling water from a kettle, and a man who fell into a ditch and refused to get out). Richard I know you are a careful researcher, so I hesitate to suggest this, but are you SURE it was a five-year old child? I do know that still-born, or newly-born but unbaptised babies were buried at night with no ceremony, a sort of kindly concession of the Vicar. Olde Crone

Just finished reading it , would recommend it , very sad but enlightening to daily lives in the 1890s and some amusing comments by the Sexton about some ofthe villagers. It is sad hou some years more children than addults were buried.Also if your family tree is from West penrith then you may recognise some names there. Such as Tresize, Oats, etc Kim

I can't answer your query but recommend you read http://west-penwith.org.uk/justsx1.htm as it is a fascinating account of burials and local people and the church.Very sad all the children Kim

One from me too.....here you are Richard £1

Here's mu cyber £1 too... Merry

Fascinating. Have you thought of looking if there is a Local History Society in that area? They might have the answer - or would enjoy making local searches. Cliff

Please Old Crone, spot this and satisfy our curiousity! Whoops! ok so you got ther before me!

Ooo-errr! For once I am stumped. A mean and nasty Vicar, burying a child, whose parents could not afford the cost? A specific request by the parents, to bury the child at night, without ceremony, but for what reason I cannot guess - unless they had all suddenly turned Catholic or Mormon or something and had had the ceremony somewhere else, which did not have burial facilities. Some kind of dreadful, infectious disease would not have been a reason - she would have been buried in a 'Plague Pit' - not sure how insistent the Authorities were in those days. Suicide??? Cannot imagine how a five-year-old would have been deemed to have done this, even if she had! Possessed of the Devil? Would have thought that would have called for the Full Works. Get the cert, Richard - here's a cyber £1 towards it. Olde Crone

Hi Karen Yes I suppose that the death cert would at least give me cause of death. With all these child deaths I usually don't bother with the cert if I've found the burial, but in this case I may need to get it to satisfy my curiosity! Richard

Hi Richard If she died in 1842 there would be a death certificate for her, cause of death should be mentioned on her death certificate which may help. Karen

Thanks all for the replies. Brenda - all six children of the family were baptised in the Fairford parish church, between 1835 & 1845. Three of them died as infants and all were buried by the church, as was the mother who died in 1847. The parents were also married in the same church - so, no signs of any non-conformism there! No such comments regarding being buried without rites for the other two children, or for the mother. I no longer have access to the PR film, but didn't notice the comment on any other burials - it certainly isn't on any of the sheets that I copied. True she could have died of some nasty disease but I don't see why that would have precluded her from having a ceremony. The only other point of note regarding the burial entry is that in the 'By whom the ceremony was performed' column, the name is different to the other entries on the page. So possibly the local vicar wasn't in town at the time - but then surely his assistant (verger?) would have been qualified to give the ceremony in his place? Still a bit of a mystery!

I can't find anything written down, but I'm sure I've heard that children were buried without ceremony to reduce costs. I think that Dickens has some descriptions of the burials of small children or infants. It might be that the family were flirting with non-conformity at the time. Questions to ask are whether this is the usual minister making the comment and whether it appears by any other burials?

Yes, amend the title of your thread to include the words ''Olde Crone, please read''!! I did that and it worked - she's BOUND to know!! I could only think of things you have already covered.....not baptised...um.... and I can't think of any other?? That's a possibility Angel mentioned. Smallpox or similar, but I would have thought then it would have been at night but WITH the service??? If it had been an earlier year I would have said maybe they thought she was possessed, or a witch or something, but seems a bit drastic for a five year old in the 1840's Merry

I can't think of any reason other than she may have been ill with an infectious disease. Perhaps Olde Crone can offer a reason. xx

Found this written as a comment on the burial record of a 5-year-old girl, in Fairford 1842. I know that suicides used to be buried this way - but surely a 5-year-old wouldn't be a suicide? She had been baptised, as were the rest of the family, and the burials of others in the family do not have any such comment (a sibling died the following year). Any ideas anyone?