Genealogy Chat

I'm currently transcribing a Baptism Register for a parish in Liverpool.
Two entries make me pause and think 'what happened to the family?'
The first is of a baptism where the father has died and not seen his child born.
The second is of a 'Private Baptism' where the child has died, whether the baby dies during the baptism or after isnt clear.
I'd never get the Register done if I researched 'what happened next' but I am tempted at times.

Liverpool was very raw, wasn't it. Just one of those cities that grew so rapidly that infrastructure couldn't cope.

I had some of mine buried in the Necropolis (West Derby Road area). It was a non-Conformist graveyard. But they were burying and then dumping them is the sea as quickly as rellies had gone home. Bit of a scandal about 1890 and graveyard was closed for a time.

And so many children and adults were dying of cholera etc

for info

Necropolis also known as Low Hill Everton was a graveyard for all denominations, tho it was used mainly by non-conformists, and was built when the central Liverpool churches such as St Nicolas could no longer accomodate burials It closed in 1898 and was transformed into what is now known as Grant's Gardens after the alderman who created them.

You could weep, couldn't you.

I have a printout of a page from a burial register for a village in Herefordshire in 1872.
Thomas was buried aged 16 hours on 21st November, then the next entry is his sister Ada buried 1st December aged 4. Another brother was aged 2 when he was buried in August 1876, then in October that year the mother died, 4 days after giving birth to another daughter.
So much sadness in one family.........

Gwyn

GR put a picture on their FB page as a caption competition. It showed a 'hidden' mother and three very worried little children.

There were many complaints about the fact that people were being invited to make a funny caption out of something which looked so sad.


It led me on to googling about hidden mothers and, the image section was quite an eye-opener.

It seem as though some Victorians were very keen of having their deceased loved ones photographed and there are some very graphic pictures of little children (and adults) in their coffins or propped up on chairs.

Some of it is quite macabre. :-(

One of my ancestors on the 1911 census had 11 children born but only 3 living!! I found all burials of the children...I can't imagine having to bury 8 of your babies...It's so sad...

Jules x

Saddest one I found was "Shropshire woman gives birth to 4 healthy children in 10 months" in a national newspaper at end of 1858. And a glowing article about how this lady had had two sets of twins very close together and "they were all lovely babies and very healthy. All born in 1858 in Hatton, a little village just south of Shifnal."

I knew none of them were alive in C1861. And when I looked at births and deaths, they had all died the same quarter or following quarter to their birth. Two of them had died by the time the article was published. But newspaper readers would not have wanted to know that.

LancashireAnn my grandfather was first cousin to the children at the Necropolis Lodge. His uncle was Superintendent from about 1880 til it closed and the Lodge (still standing, I think) was a lovely family home. Went to Grant Gardens to look for a gravestone - not quite what I expected. That area was really nice when my grandpa was a boy (born 1886).

Thanks for that update John. Always interesting to have a little extra info. OH' Gt Gt grandfather buried there - and probably others of his family that I have not found graves for yet. It took me a long time to find his burial - I was looking closer to Liverpool centre as he lived overlooking the church & churchyard of St Nick's

He was one of the lucky ones - at least 8 of his 10 children grew up to marry