Genealogy Chat

That would have been about the time of the Lancashire cotton famine. Mills closed, workers were laid off, and many people were on the verge of starvation. Large numbers moved away from Lancashire - all my Grimshaws (several families of them) upped and moved from Manchester to Bradford, and never went back.

The area was in fact Kirkby in Lancashire. Kathlyn

Found this: Scarlet Fever was once one of the world's deadliest childhood diseases. It killed tens of thousands of children during the great epidemics that raged throughout Europe and the United States. In the English and Welsh epidemics of 1864, 1865 and 1869, more than 90,000 people died from the disease or its complications. Not only was it virulent, it was mysterious. Often, several family members were stricken with the disease, but others were spared for no apparent reason. Don't know if thats any help Jane

Although I have not verified these people as being 'mine', they are the right names and fall into the right area. Died 1863 JAS aged 7 daughter Died 1863 OND aged 34 Mother Died1864 AMJ aged 11 daughter Died 1864 JAS aged 3 Son Died 1865 JAS aged 16 daughter. Was their some sort of epidemic going around about that time that would account for these deaths??