Nearly forgotten

A few weeks ago one of Amy Johnson Crow’s posts for #52ancestors was the topic

Nearly Forgotten

I decided to do a count of those children who died under the age of five that I have listed in my database at home. This database is gathered from other people from family reunions and emails so not necessarily verified by proper sources.

Here are the results out of just over 7700 names.

  • Immediate or within two months of birth – 37
  • Under 3 years – 39
  • Under 5 years – 7

Most were from the 18th or 19th centuries but a few were from the 20th century. I don’t have birth or death dates for everyone in the database but these results are from those who had both dates included.

As most are not my immediate line back, I haven’t got records of cause of death. I am gradually adding that to my new database where everything has been verified with sources.

Readers: Do you have many deaths of infants in your tree? How are they remembered in your family?

5 thoughts on “Nearly forgotten

  1. I have many incidents of Infant and children’s deaths. Some I was curious and purchased a death certificate. Others I found on Trove which were related to unfortunate accidents. Some of the babies died from teething, one from drinking cows milk. All very sad but they’re all in the tree. Kate Black.

  2. Thank you for raising this. I have even seen a grave of an eight year old child who died. Out of 15 children in my great grandfather’s family only 12 lived. This is written on the father’s death certificate.
    I will endeavour to find out more

    • Hi Kathryn,
      It is terrible to see those certificates or census records where it mentions the number of living or dead children. Those poor parents who have more dead than living. But in my research into another person’s family recently, I have found that teething is a common cause for those just a few weeks old.

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