Coal Miners.....

[Scozzie]

I found the death of one of mine, and on the same page were two of his brothers-in-law. They died of suffocation in the coalpit at Glencorse.

This led me to: http://www.mining-villages.co.uk/28.html
A total of 102 men died that day.

My relative was Alexander McKinlay age 28, his brothers-in-law were David Wallace age 22 and Andrew Wallace age 13 (the record states 14, but he was only 13). Alexander's wife Isabella was pregnant with their fifth child at the time of the accident and that child died before he was three years old.

What a hard life our ancestors had.

Has anyone else sat and cried when they found relatives' death entries?

[SarahMackay]

Hi Scozzie

I have also cried over death entries. I have a family that all the children died within 5 weeks of each other. I originally thought that it must have been an epidemic or something but the cause oif death is different for each one - the youngest apparently died of Teething!

And it's not just the death entries either - my gg-grandmother appears to have abandoned her family when her two daughters were 7 and 5 respectively. The children moved with their father to England where he re-married. She didn't die until 1947 (after re-marrying as a spinster!). This upset me so much given that my granny was led to believe by her mother that her grandmother had died. When I told my granny what I had found out, she was silent for a moment and then replied "She could have come to my wedding".

Its times like that you remember that the people that you are researching are actually people and not just names on pieces of paper.

I do have to say though that it works for the opposite too. I have found a "cousin" in Canada that I didn't know I had and he has just sent me some photographs of family. That also reduced me to tears

Sarah

[joette]

Whilst searching for the Death of a GGGreat-Aunt found the entry below was for another girl whose exsistence I knew nothing about.They died of Whooping Cough-the three year old twelve hours before the nine month old.There was obviously an epidemic in Penicuik as there were six deaths all on Kirkhill & all Whooping Cough.
I remember my little sister having Whooping Cough when she was seven & she would literally climb the walls when she had an attack.This despite being immunissed.
I just thought of Alexander Young reporting those two sad deaths & booed my eyes out.
I cried over Ann Christie who died aged two of a fractured skull,followed by her Mother two years later of Typhus.The same disease would claim Janet's(Ann's Mother) brother Duncan Scott several years later & thus the eldest & youngest child of my GGGrandparents would die & it took Duncan then nineteen 44 days.What suffering that must have been for all.
The most poignant was my Mother's Grandfather who died of Pernicious Aneamia-a disease which is simply treatable today but which meant that Ruby my Granny's youngest sister was left an orphan & had to go into an Orphanage

[AnnieMack]

One of the first things I found when I started on this long journey was the death certificate for my mum's brother aged 6. It made me cry as I remember my granny showing me drawings he had done and she still had them nearly 30 years later.

When looking at my dad's side I knew there had been 3 of his siblings who died as children and it turned out there were actually 4, one only lasted 6 weeks.

That's without going into the next level, how hard it must have been for them.

Annie

[maceill]

Found my great aunt, died of TB aged six years, in the idustrial school Glasgow.Icried when i found the death certificate. as the little one had no family around her when she died, even though her father , twin brother, and two sisters were still alive at the time.
On another subject, as i have no photos of my grandparents ,i often wonder what they and my ancestors looked like.I have in my mind pictures of them all, is anyone else as daft as me.
maceill.
researching, Boyle, Currans .Glasgow.Newmonkland.donegal

[Russell]

What's daft about building a mental picture of your ancestors ? We all do it most likely!
Most of us want to know how they lived, how they coped with some awful conditions, how they could deal with the trauma of losing, not one, but several children before they were five, How could any woman cope with a child every 18 months and still manage to have food on the table, keep the house clean.
As I gather information I start to see the worry, strength, determination on the faces I give them. I don't care if they didn't really look like my mental image. Its mine, locked inside my head and I grow more and more proud of them because without their fortitude I wouldn't be here.

Russell

[joette]

I am very lucky in that I(well my Mother has most) have family photos going back to the earliest 1870.I have no clue who many of them are but the resemblance is there.
Now my only puzzle is how come Paper-Mill workers(mainly) were able to afford this luxury?
I have recentlybeen contacted by my Sask Lindleys.They have e-mailed me various photos some of which I & my recently discovered 2nd cousin in Penicuik have too.Any doubts about the connection are quickly dispelled but the weirdest thing is that Catherine Scott(my Paternal Grandfather's sister) husband looks so much like my Mother's youngest brother.Then my Mother's brothers were often mistaken for my Father's siblings & they say that people marry people that resemble themselves.
The photos tell a story re fashions,War & emigration & social change.