Genealogy Chat

I have the death certs for 3 sisters who died within 2 days of each other. The deaths occurred in 22 & 24 August 1874 and the girls were aged 1, 2 and 3 yrs old. The baby died from 'convulsions' and the other two died from 'Scarlatina Malingna'. Does anyone know what this is? I thought it might have been some sort of childhood illness as they were all so young.

'Scarlatina Malingna' is Scarlet fever. http://www.henriettesherbal.*com/eclectic/thomas/scarlatina.html Rose

Oh...thanks for that. The poor little things. how sad.

How terrible to loose 3 babies in 2 days, it doesn't bear thinking about does it?. Sue

I agree with you Sue, it would be unbearable. But it seems to be something that happened regularly as I have many infant deaths in my tree. These little girls died in their home so obviously the parents couldn't afford to hospitalise them. Deb:(

yes i had this when i was young. Avril

Sadly, a read through burial registers quickly brings home to one just how frequently there were epidemics of scarlet fever, measles and whooping cough. All 3 diseases wiped out the lives of many children, and sometimes their Mums too. It was all too common for many families to lose more than one child during an outbreak. Jay

Brenda from Wales, Scarlatina is the medical name for Scarlet Fever, my daughter had it 3yrs. ago Tricia :-)

'I always thought that scarlatina was a mild form of Scarlet fever' Not that mild. My G-G-G-G Grandfather died of Scarlatina and Laryngitis, he was a fit and healthy 42 year old, and must have been fairly strong as he was a docker. Killed him in 5 days according to his death cert.

I had scarlet fever when I was little and was about 10 weeks in an isolation hospital. Parents could visit but had to stand like chickens on a wooden thing outside the window while I wrote down what I wanted to say to them. My parents and sister had to be there when the house was fumigated. I am told I wrote, pointing to one nurse, 'see her? she's awful'. Daft thing is that I didn't want to come out when the time came!!!!

Scarlet fever was also a common cause of deafness. I've met quite a few survivors of Scarlet fever who were deafened by it. Have just thought, If you do have any photos of people who show evidence of being deaf (ear trumpets or other forms of hearing aids, sign language, etc.) the Deaf History Society would be interested in receiving any copies you would be willing to give them.