How can you feel so bereft over a 1876 Death?.....

[joette]

I have been looking for the elusive Alexander Waddell my
G-Grandfather's big brother.He too would have been not more than a boy-12 when they were orphaned in 1867.
I have searched high & low for his Marriage/Death spending a fortune on SP.
Today I found him on the 1871 Census although he gave the wrong village of birth& an apprentice Mason a trade almost all the Waddell boys followed no sign on the 1881 & I knew he hadn't emigrated so checked deaths between the Census-no joy in Glasgow,Perth the most likely places.
Only two in Edinburgh-one in Kirknewton which is just up the road to where my wee sister lives but the one in Stow I decided on first & it was him.22,single Railway Goods Guard?-obviously gave up the Stonemasonry.Killed instaneously when he fell amongst the wheels of a train.
I am stunned I imagined a happy marriage & children for him & he died alone & it was left up to his landlord to report his Death.Did his siblings ever know what had happened to him?The others were definetly in touch & the two younger boys were in Edinburgh at some point too-my GGrandfather John & his brother William.
What is even more poignant is that their eldest brother was killed on the railway too-he was a Stonemason when the jib of a crane fell on him.
I feel so bereaved & sad.The Waddells certainly did not have their sorrows to seek what with Typhoid,accidental deaths & orphans galore.
I think that is why my Grandpa tried hid best to give a home to my Granny's wee sister when she was orphaned & before he married my Granny.I am off to have a good greet

[ASGROOMBRIDGE]

Oh hen I know how you feel, on my last trip to NRH I found a little one my grandmother had lost and my heart ached for her, then eighteen months later only a month before my own mother was born she lost another wee girl my heart just broke, I sat in front of the computer thinking oh my poor nana, the tears tripping down my face, this lady from another computer passed by touched my shoulder and smiled, happens to us all she said.

So you ha a good greet, youll feel all the better for it.

Audrey

[Ina]

Hi Joette,

I know exactly how you feel. I had a good wee cry myself when I found out that my great great grandmother had ten children and seven of them died before their second birthday. You wonder how a mother can get over losing so many children, must have been extremely sad.

Ina

[AnneM]

Hi Joette

Two really touched me. The first was my maternal grandmother's brother. He was a student at Glasgow University at the time and was only 21. I knew my great grandmother. She was a very hard working woman and worked in the laundry and then kept a guest house to keep herself and her children when her husband, whom I suspect of being a bit of a chocolate teapot, died young (as in as much use as a). I could just imagine how proud she must have been of her boy getting to University and then to lose him like that. At the time my own eldest was also a student at Glasgow so I felt for her doubly. In fact she was survived by only one of her four children, Greast Aunt Bella.

The other was the oldest son of my maternal grandfatherr's grandparents who were the people who raised him because his mother was not married at that stage. That young man drowned in the Holy Loch at Sandbank. I think it is because I have young adult sons of my own and also because it happened in the place where I grew up and off the beaach where I played so often as a child. I guess also I always feel they must have been good people to take such care of my grandfather as he was clearly devoted to his grandmother's family. They must have taken some stick because he was illegitimate and his father was the son of a German Jewish immigrant. I guess he may have met with some discrimination.

Anne

[Bertha]

I was actually looking for my gr grandfathers (one from each parent) on the War Memorial site when I decided to put in the names of my grandfather's 2 oldest brothers (I had only found out about their existance through the 1901 cencus, grandad had never mentioned them).
I had lots of time so clicked on every J & R Nelson until I finally came across them, they had died about a year apart, one at the Battle of the Somme with MacRaes battallion.
When I told my mum she and I both cried for the uncles she never knew.
A few weeks later, the author of MacRaes Battallion (The Heart of Midlothian story) managed to trace us and he came down to visit, it really made "Uncle Bob" seem real and he gave us a great insite to the young man we never knew and yes you've guessed wee had another wee greet.
Uncle Bob had been with the battallion at the Battle of The Somme and had died alongside the Hearts players his wee brother (my grandad) had idolised.
Well I can feel the tears coming again as I think of all the sad tales we all have to tell so better go do something cheerier to do.
Bertha

[dstew]

WE too have a sad sad story
WE had in my family tree of a little girl in 1893 who was badly scolded by her mother ,she was being a good girl getting ready for her bath and which being only 5 yrs of age was in the bath tub when her mother pourd boiling water over her.When we had a reunion there were many tears shed over that incident and most probably will be more, poor child the mother never got of that and i dont think any mother ever would

[rye470]

I'd hate to count how many children died in childhood throughout my tree. My Grandmother alone had five siblings die before the age of two. The one that always gets me greetin is her uncle, John Kennedy, who died of an 'accidental overdose of Laudenum'. He was 5 days old. It was hard enough in 1866, to carry a baby to term, and give birth without something like that happening a few days later. There wasn't even an inquest.

dstew,

A mother never gets over something like that happening. My husband has a large scald scar on his neck and down most of the right hand side of his torso. He was 10 months when my mother in law strapped him into his high chair ang gave him his lunch. She left his pudding on the side to cool down. She went to the window to shout his sister up for her lunch, and just as she turned back, he hoisted himself out of his chair as far as he could, grabbed the kettle flex, and hauled the contents of the kettle over himself. He was a long time in Canniesburn, with skin grafts continuing until he was about 16. 43 years later, she still cannot forgive herself for overlooking the kettle flex, and can't bear to think about that day.

She says that day will haunt her until the day she dies.


Christine.

[fortunata]

What sad and touching stories we can uncover when we do our research.
My Grandmother, i discovered, had a brother, John Henry(my fathers names, so i guess he was named for him) and he died at the Battle of Coronel and 1914, aboard the HMS Good Hope. I never knew about him at all until i started my research. Then i discovered that my grandmothers parents had five children die in infancy (five survived),
Also, my gtgt grandmother lost (hope i get this right) a sister and niece in the Tay Bridge disaster.

[maceill]

Today i found one of my grandads ,sister who died at 6 months old, a few months ago, i found his twin sister who died age 6years.Both died from ailments that could be cured with a visit to the chemist these days.What a hard life our ancestors had.
The church were i worship,has a rememberance book were we can place our ancestors, and each day a new page is turned,so on the date of thier death we can light a candle and remember them, i like to think that all the family are together now
maceill

[Bertha]

We've all been talking of past sorrows. However, when I went down to my mum's after writing my tale, she told me of two deaths in our extended family.
My mum's cousin lost her adult daughter in the morning and her own sister at night. Someday someone will be researching their tree and feel like we do today about those past lifes we never knew.
Regards
Bertha