The Scourge of Phthisis (Tuberculosis)

Neither my wife nor I have to go back very far in our family trees to find direct ancestors who died of Phthisis, more commonly known as tuberculosis: Mary Elizabeth (Pearson) Shepheard, my great-grandmother, died in 1891; and Elizabeth (Walker) Cooper, my wife’s grandmother, in 1922. The dates are far removed and the origins of the disease are quite disparate. Both left young children behind, though, as well as husbands who I believe had difficulty coping with the care of those children in addition to the loss of their partners.

Tuberculosis is one of those diseases that have been around the world for a very long time. There is probably not a family that has not had someone afflicted and/or died because of it. One can find a great deal of information on tuberculosis on the Internet, starting with Wikipedia, which notes that it has gone by names, consumption, phthisis, scrofula, Pott's disease and the White Plague at various times in history. The disease appears to go back thousands of years, to the Neolithic period. It was certainly around in Greece in the 5^th century, apparently one of the most common causes of death there. It was present in India in 1500 BC, Egypt in 2000 BC and possibly in China in 4500 BC. Europe was plagued by the disease for hundreds of years. It was present there during the Middle Ages and as widespread epidemics (the Great White Plague) into the 19^th century. Some researchers have estimated that tuberculosis in all of its forms have killed over a billion people around the globe over the last two hundred years. In 2013, according to the World Health Organization, 9 million people fell ill with it and 1.5 million died.

The first record in Cornwood parish, Devon, (which parish I look after as on Online Parish Clerk) burial records was in 1770. That was a period when the then vicar made an effort to record causes of death. Not all ministers did so in the past so the record is incomplete. In that year and the two following there were also many deaths from small pox. Adjacent parishes do not have this kind of detail however statistics show there was a substantial increase in the number of burials during this time period; so there must also have had many residents die of consumption as well. The disease hit all ages and all socio-economic groups.

I do not know how My Great-grandmother contracted TB. It was certainly easily spread by contact with others who had it, primarily through the air. She was probably already in the early stages when my grandfather was born, seven months prior to her death. She may have caught it in a medical ward, a crowded tramcar or even at church. We won’t likely ever know.

The manner in which my wife’s grandmother was affected is a bit clearer. She was admitted to an asylum just a couple of years after the birth of her last child. At the time she was suffering from what was described as “a state of wild maniacal excitement” and “hallucinations of hearing” (possibly schizophrenia?). Asylums in Scotland through the early 20^th century were also places where people sick with tuberculosis were confined. In the less-than-hygienic conditions, highly contagious diseases like tuberculosis spread rapidly. Many patients, originally hospitalized for mental illness actually died of other causes such as phthisis.

Phthisis is a particularly nasty sickness, originally defined by Aelius Galenus, a prominent Greek physician, as the "ulceration of the lungs, thorax or throat, accompanied by a cough, fever, and consumption of the body by pus."

Effective treatment of consumption was virtually unavailable well into the 20^th century, until the discovery of Streptomycin which came into use in the 1940s and isoniazid in the early 1950s. The antibiotic drugs offered hope that the disease could be eradicated. That did begin to happen within a few decades – cases in Britain dropped from around 117,000 in 1913 to about 5,000 in 1987. With the emergence of other diseases which impaired the immune system, the appearance of more drug-resistant strains and the reduction in public health services, the number of reported cases rose again. In the undeveloped world, the contagion is still widespread.

There may have been many more family members who became sick with and even died of tuberculosis. The lack of records prevents us knowing for sure. We might be able to track outbreaks of the disease in certain areas and see if any deaths in the family corresponded with times of outbreaks. That might tell us whether tuberculosis might have been a cause.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated

Families Split Across the Ocean

Many of my ancestors came to North America with young families. That’s not unusual. Almost all immigrants were young, with the energy and drive necessary to succeed in a foreign land. And two hundred years ago it was even more mandatory to have the strength and will to pick up and travel thousands of miles to a completely unknown future.

Travel was dangerous as well – from harsh weather conditions and the potential for disease that might be spread among passengers on a crowed ship. Very often passengers perished on the trip over, the youngest being the most vulnerable. Settlement in North America really got established in the early 1600s, following a century of exploration, as people primarily from northern Europe and the British Isles sought to flee religious persecution, poverty and joblessness.

Married couples with children were among the largest group of émigrés, forced to leave homelands where work was scarce or non-existent. Their only opportunities for survival lay in the New World, where steady employment, land and freedom were the goals. There are many reasons for the mass movement of people and there are many periods during which it happened. In my family it appears economic considerations were of greatest importance. Many of my ancestors also emigrated from Britain in the early 19^th century when times were tough there.

Because young families were involved to a large extent circumstances prevailed where there were siblings born on both sides of the ocean – and sometimes in the middle. I have several examples of this in my own family. The fact that families were on the move resulted in a dearth of documentation of births and deaths in many cases which makes it difficult to piece together an ancestral history.

1.      Gilbert and Margaret (Maitland) Anderson (3^rd great-grandparents) came to Canada in 1832. This date comes from information from census data, obituaries and published histories of the areas in which they settled. Their son, Robert Anderson, who I mentioned in my last post,  was born in Glasgow, Scotland possibly while waiting for the ship to sail. Older siblings were likely born in Stirlingshire, just to northeast of the port; younger siblings were born in Canada, mainly in Lanark County but few records are preserved to confirm this. Gilbert was a weaver by trade who may have lost work due to the establishment of major printing and weaving factories in the region where he live, pushing local home-based artisans out.

2.      John and Mary (Manson) Phillipo (3^rd great-grandparents) came to Canada in 1836, shortly after the birth of my 2^nd great-grandmother, Susan. Two older siblings had been born in England; four younger siblings were born in Brantford, Ontario. John was a farmer after he arrived in Canada. I have not yet found information about the family in England but it may be safe to say that the attraction of new opportunities to farm in the New World may have been the reason for their relocation here.

3.      George and Mary (Tyler) Emerson (3^rd great-grandparents) came to Canada in 1835 with my  then three-year old 2^nd great-grandmother, Elizabeth. Seven of her siblings had been born in Bottesford, Leicestershire, England. The youngest of these died crossing Atlantic. Six more siblings were born in Thorold, Ontario. Information from GENUKI about Bottesford indicated that “In the 1830s Bottesford families were encouraged to emigrate to save their being chargeable to the parish and were offered £1 plus their fare to emigrate. Village labourers had pay cuts and many local farmers agreed only to employ local men.” Part of the reason for this was likely that the parish could no longer afford to support indigent families.

4.      Dr. Thomas and Ellen (Tunstall) Mayfield (3^rd great-grandparents) came to US about 1811. Their two oldest children had been born in London, England; five more children were born in Baltimore, Maryland, including my 2^nd great-grandmother, Hannah Tunstal. Thomas was a medical doctor, trained in England, who ended up actively supporting the Americans in War of 1812. Why he would have left a promising practice in London is still a mystery.

5.      I am unsure about the family of John Conrad Miller, one of my 2^nd great-grandfathers. He may have come over from Germany with parents and siblings but I have no information on passenger lists or familial relationships.

There were certainly immigrants in other family lines however they came both after the 19^th century (grandfather, James Pearson Shepheard, in 1907) and well before. I have not yet found definitive information that shows when the earliest arrived but it seems likely it was in the mid-1600s (George Keith, 8^th great-grandfather).

A common thread among all my ancestors who immigrated to North America was that they were in search of a better life, especially for the young families they brought with them. In that, they managed to succeed for the most part, almost all prospering and becoming important members of their new communities, something they might never have achieved had they stayed in the land of their birth.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated

Finding people who appear in records around the world: the case of Maude Isabel Mallet

I had a request from Patricia, a lady from Australia, who found two links to online family trees concerning her grandmother, born Maude Isabel Mallet, parents Thomas Britten Mallet and Emma Hulance, nee Davis. Both references indicated she had been born in Plympton, Devon in 1856. As the Online Parish Clerk for the parish she asked me whether I could verify the parents’ names, birth date and location.

One of the trees was on Genes Reunited and gave only the year, quarter and registration district for Maude’s birth. The other reference was on a webtrees family file, Britten Family of Northamptonshire & London. The second, again, only had information on the quarter when the birth was registered but had substantial other data about Maude’s family, including parents and siblings. Her younger brother and sister had been born in Australia which gave us a time frame for when the family moved there from England.

I set out to see what I could find in my parish records. Sometimes these searches that seem simple end up leading you around in circles.

As is often the case with lookups in the area, I determined that the Plympton reference was for the Plympton St. Mary Registration District not the parish as Maude Isabel was not listed in the baptism registers of any of my parishes.

A quick search of Ancestry and FindMyPast records brought up information about Maude’s parents on various family trees: his baptism in 1811, in Hampshire, England, parents Thomas Mallet Esq. and Sarah Saunders; her baptism in 1828, in Somerset, England, parents Jacob Davis and Catherine Hulance; their marriage in 1853, in Middlesex, England; his death in 1864, in Australia; and her death in Australia in 1912.

Maude’s birth on Ancestry, again, was only shown on the civil birth index in Plympton St. Mary Registration District in 1856. Her baptism was indicated to have been in July of 1856, in Australia, though, which indicated she may have been born in Devon just before the family left for Australia. Perhaps they were just waiting near the port to board their ship when the baby decided to come.

I suggested to Patricia that she order the birth certificate from the General Record Office using the volume and page references given in the index. The document she received did indeed confirm that Maude’s parents were Thomas Britten Mallet and Emma Hulance, nee Davis and that she was born in Plymstock parish, which is just across the inlet from the port of Plymouth; so a couple of important questions were answered.

 

Birth certificate for Maude Isabel Mallet, parents Thomas Britten Malled and Emma Hulance Mallet, formerly Davis; obtained from General Register Office, England

In further correspondence with Patricia I learned quite a bit about this very interesting family. Thomas Britten Mallet was born in Hampshire, England however the family soon after moved back to their “homeland” of Jersey in the Channel Islands where Thomas and later siblings were baptized. He served in the local militia from a young age, according to one source, being promoted to 2^nd lieutenant at fifteen and to Captain at twenty-three. By the 1840s he was a shipping agent, and owner (?) for emigrant ships to Australia and probably other destinations. There is an 1845 freedom of the City of London document that shows him being admitted to the Company of Spectaclemakers. It is not known whether he was actually involved in the making of eye-glasses or whether this was a way to gain access to the business community of London. He ended up taking his family to Australia in 1856, as we first discovered in the search for his daughter, Maude Isabel. He bought a sawmill business near Melbourne from his brother-in-law in 1860. The business was not viable and went bankrupt in 1862. He died in 1864, apparently leaving his young family in some economic hardship.

One of the reasons why this particular story resonated with me is that I believe one of my 2^nd great-grandfathers, Robert Anderson, may also have been born while his family waited by or even on the ship to take them from Glasgow, Scotland to Canada. His birth, indicated on numerous records, including his own death certificate, was on January 6^th, 1832, in Glasgow. No baptism record has been found for Robert, which is curious as that was a common practice of the day in the absence of civil birth records.

A note on the 1901 Canada census showing his brother, John, says the family arrived in Canada in 1832. His older siblings were born in Scotland, near but not in Glasgow, and those younger were born in Canada. So we have some written reports and some indirect information that Robert was born in Glasgow in 1832 but nothing direct to confirm it. If he was later baptized in Canada those records appear to have not survived.

  

Robert Anderson (1832-1912)

Other of my ancestors’ families are split with some births in Great Britain and others in Canada; so that, too, is similar to the story of the Mallets. I will have more to say about my immigrant families in my next blog – number 100.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated