Have you ever wondered what killed our ancestors? Especially those in the female lines. Today, I think I discovered what killed my great-great-great grandmother, Ann Maria Carter nee Paul. She married Edwin Harvey Carter in 1831. The 1840 census shows a woman between the age of 20 and 30. The 1830 census gives her age as 32. I don't think that's likely, but her headstone, only part of which is readable gives her age as 45, but the year of death is obstructed.
Through the census and other records I had eight children: Elizabeth the eldest and my g-g-grandmother, Virginia, Harvey, Marion, Columbia, Edwin, William and John Leonard.
Today, I discovered the find-a-grave monument for her and her five infants: Sarah Bell, Leslie, Alice Grey, Thomas Stephen and Warren Dean.
That's 13 children if you lost count. Ann Carter was deceased by the 1860 census, and her husband was remarried to Sallie Smith Burbridge who had a few children of her own and two more by Edwin Carter. By 1867, Edwin was on his third wife, Sallie Scruggs.
It's clear that childbearing in the mid 1800s was often a dangerous event. Losing five infants must have been devastating. While it would be nice to know for sure, that will never happen. None of the family has left a written record of their times.
Copyright 2010-2017, ACK for Gene Notes
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