Swain Vestry is behind the church
Report on the Discussion Topic:
Biggest tragedy/ disaster or saddest discovery in your research
The Medway Discussion Group heard about a range of misfortunes which had befallen members of our family trees.
The first was from the village of Islip and involved a suicide. With the help of extended family and a helpful journalist, our group member had managed to discover what had happened to this unfortunate chap. He had been found in a field, throat cut and a razor at his side. Details of the inquest gave information about his regular week-long disappearances from home which prevented his wife from reporting him missing. Many years later, it seemed that more distant family members knew about this incident, but the immediate family had been kept in the dark.
The next tale of woe started happily with a five-times great grandmother marrying a fisherman in Broughty Ferry, near Dundee. Over 21 years, they had ten children - five sons and five daughters. They also built a home and businesses in the local area in addition to income from fishing. However, fortunes changed on the death of the husband. The family got into debt and the house was sequestrated. One of the daughters died, two were widowed… one twice. The sons fared no better. One died in his early thirties; one died of alcoholism and the remaining three perished in a storm while fishing on the family fishing boat.
The next sorry story concerned the daughter of a silversmith. She married a widower, becoming step-parent to his son. They then had two sons of their own before the husband died when the youngest child was just three weeks old. She survived for the next few years before marrying her second husband. They moved into social housing and had two daughters, before he died. Her third marriage was to a much younger man who then died in curious circumstances in a hotel room. Her two sons died of TB and the older daughter died of liver poisoning.
Another group member reported a double suicide and two railway accidents amongst his discoveries. One of the railway incidents involved an ancestor with a bicycle slipping between the train and the platform. Coroner’s and newspaper reports provided more details of the unfortunate events.
Our next tale involved a couple who married and had three daughters followed by a son. The son died at just one month and this was followed by the death of the wife. Her husband was left to raise three daughters, before the oldest daughter also died.
The next story involved a husband and wife in a somewhat turbulent marriage. Even after they had separated, the wife returned each Sunday to cook his dinner. However, on one such occasion, she arrived to discover that he had hanged himself.
Our next group member had a slightly different ‘sad’ observation. He lamented the great aunts and uncles that he never knew about (until it was too late) because his parents never spoke of them.
Our final story was of a five-times-great-grandfather who had been hanged for smuggling. Our group member pointed out that it was the unfortunate early years of his life story which she found the saddest. His mother had died when he was still a boy, followed by his father. A widow had been paid to raise him before he had been sent away from his local parish to undertake an apprenticeship. He had married a woman several years older than him before becoming involved in the ill-fated smuggling operation which would ultimately lead to his execution.
Our afternoon of tea and chat ended with a decision to tackle a decidedly more upbeat topic for next month’s meeting!
Report by Helen Stenhouse