Genealogy Chat

Wasn't sure which thread to post this on, but am wondering whether other GR members have noticed any clues as to their ancestors' attitudes towards family members who died from TB (also called Consumption or Phthisis).

Through my own research, I have discovered the following:-

Hilda, born to a 17 year-old single mother, who appears to have been brought up by her grandparents. At 14 she is working in a children's home. In 1917, aged 20, she dies of TB having been cared for in a nuns' community. Prior to that she was in a workhouse, then moved to a sanatorium. She was buried in a public grave (i.e. with several other unrelated people). The informant on her death cert. was her aunt, rather than her mother.

Lucy, aged 43 in 1873, dies in the most poverty-stricken area of East End London, having been cared for by a friend/neighbour. Five months earlier, her 'widowed' husband had married his second wife.

I just thought this would be an interesting discussion. I have read that the disease has given rise to much folklore and misconception before it was researched and fully understood.

Liz

Hi Liz,

I have a copy of my Grandfather death cert(he died when my Dad was 12)

Cause of death was phthisis-one year certified.

Presnt at death was his wife who sadly died the following year of pulmonary tuberculosis and heart failure and died one year later.

Strange I have both these certs and never looked at the link of diagnosis of T.B.
The children were put in to seperate orfan homes and no one seemed to get the disease.

In Ireland families kept together and nursed their sick relatives back in the 1930s

However my Mum always said my Dad had T.B before they married in 1955 and he did look unwell in the wedding photos.

The strange thing was that when my Dad was ill earlier this year and I mentioned to the Doctors that my Dad had T.B in the past ,nothing showed up on the chest x-ray.
Dad died suddenly and post mortum showed C.O.P.D.
a condition of collection of chest problems so who knows.

My late Mother said when she was young there was always a stigma attached to cancer and everything was kept hushed up.

My Grandparents ran a laundry and employed staff so were not poor in the normal sense of the word years ago
Is an interesting discussion point though..

Teresa

Hi Teresa,

Thanks for sharing your experience of how TB affected family.

I have just been reading more about it - Wikipedia has a lot of detail. Apparently there's a latent form of the disease, which may lie undetected for many years. But it makes the patient more susceptible to other infections because it affects their immune system.

And, as your Mother said, there was a stigma attached to diseases such as cancer ... and most probably to many other long-term diseases that weren't properly understood.

On the face of it, my two examples suggest that the families were uncaring and neglectful (and I can't think of any excuse for bigamy!) but perhaps there were other things going on with the families that made it appear that way. Hilda's and Lucy's families were not related.

Liz

My ggggrandfather died of TB in 1862. He died at home with his family around him. He was very poor and lasted 6 months after diagnosis. His eldest son was informant. Out of his four children only my gggrandmother survived. All three children died within the next 15 years of TB

The stigma associated with TB hung on for years!
The actor Robert Lyndsey didn't know until he was 42 that he had had TB.
He knew he had been in a sanitorium as a child, but it was only when he had a scan, and the scar on his lung was noted that he was told he had a tuberculosis scar. He then asked his father and was eventually told the truth.

My mother was (apparently) never told why I was in a sanitorium for 3 months at the age of 6. The boy in the next room had TB. My records have disappeared (it was in Scotland, I now live in England). My Heaf test was positive.
TB affects many parts of the body - my lungs are scar free - but at the age of 51 I discovered I only had 1 kidney.....


Plus side is, I admitted to my nephrologist that I hated water, preferring tea or wine - and was told that's better than water!!!
Water washes out minerals - tea & wine contain lots - she wasn't concerned about my liver (which the scan showed was healthy!!! LOL

Oooh, those are both sad stories.

I didn't know about Robert Lyndsey's history. Now, if people's own parents wouldn't admit to their children the cause of their illness, there really was a stigma attached to it.

I imagine that if somebody had TB but nobody knew, the person would have still shown some symptoms, for example lethargy and even the inability to work. The family might have thought that they were simply lazy, irresponsible or not 'pulling their weight'. If they had no job and had to go to the workhouse, that was another unmentionable thing in itself.

I had to do a lot of research to find out what "1 Hensington Road" was - the place where Hilda lived before she went to the Sanatorium. Eventually I discovered the truth: the Registrar had recorded this address rather than state that it was the Union Workhouse in Woodstock.

Liz

TB was common among returning POWs after WW2

We nursed them at Northwood in Middlesex I remember

Hi Liz, sorry not replied have been at work,day off today.
Imentioned to my Mother-in-law about this thred topic.
She is not old 68( and belongs to her local history society)
and said that T.B was a disease of the poor. My Grandparents were not hugely wealthy but ran their own laundry buisiness and employed 3 ladies who worked for them.

Just had a thought prehaps one of their the staff may have passed it on to the family.

This is a good way to find out, share and think about information.

Thanks Liz for starting thred and everyone else for their contributions. I had no idea about Robert Lindsey.

Teresa

Hi everyone ,
I had T.B . in 1964 and when i told my
parents they were horrified at first .
saying how on earth have you got that there's noone else in the family
who's had /got that . but doing my family history i see that 2 of my G/G/ grandfathers died of T.B and then after that i got Asthma and had a cousin that died of asthma ,.again mum&dad said no one else has asthma.
so much for noone else in the family having anything lol .
Hazelx.

Lots of my ancestors died of TB pre and post 1900 .it was very endemic and antibiotics just didnt exist the to treat it . When i was younger ,,many moons ago- i was a WW2 toddler!! TB was still a feared illness.
To be honest I have been more "OH MY" in finding ancestors who died of syphilis and congenital syphilis than TB as that seemed to be a little more I know how you got that!! type of reaction which is silly cos that too was endemic

Hi to everyone who has replied recently to my thread.

I'm glad people are finding it interesting and useful - as I am.

I'm fascinated by the social history side of genealogy, and this is a great help in understanding the attitudes of the times towards disease.

Liz

Just had a thought - or memory ...

Thinking about those people who have posted on here who themselves had TB in the latter half of the C20 ...

I can remember, at school (1960s-70s) having a skin test for TB. It was a kind of stamp that left a small circle of little red dots on the inside of your forearm. If you had TB, the dots reacted in some way (became inflamed??).

Liz

My uncle died of Pulmonary Tuberculouis in 1936 he 21yrs old,

I dont know if my grandparent's were ashamed of his cause of death.

They told everyone in the family he died falling down the mine shaft and when I got the death cert no one would believe me until I showed them the cert.

Val

I had undetected Pulmonary TB in the mid 50s. When I had the skin test aged 11 I gave a positive response. The chest X ray showed scarring. This was later confirmed years later when I underwent a specialist X ray at the department of nuclear medicine. I had chronic whooping cough when I was 3 and it just wouldn't clear up, that I remember!!!

My best friend had TB of her spine which was discovered when she applied to be a nurse in the 70s.

I would imagine it is a lot more prevalent than generally thought.

Sue