Count Your Blessings

[carni 10,094]

I am always reading up about our favorite City in times gone by; and sometimes find it hard to absorb all of the information, especially when there are lots of prominent people( Land owners etc) involved. In and out of my memory in an instant, but I continue to find things of interest. This link is about 10yrs old but seeing as it is written about times in Nottingham in the early nineteenth century, it shouldn't make much difference. It is about the ordinary people and the conditions they had to live in. Count your blessings miducks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/features/2003/07/nineteenth_century_nottingham.shtml

[loppylugs 8,429]

When you've grown up in the Nottingham area with running water and an outside privy one probably thinks they have had it rough.  Its hard to even imagine the kind of conditions these folks faced every day during those early years.   It's amazing there were not even more epidemics than there were.

[carni 10,094]

We are only talking around 150yrs ago, at a time when our Gt andGt Gt  Grandparents were alive. My Grandparents were born in the1890s, so I imagine some of their poorer parents, lived through conditions like this, especially my paternal side who were mainly Carlton/Snienton people.

Those terraced houses that were demolished in the 60/70s around the city would have felt like palaces to them. Just reading about the sanitary conditions alone seems hard to imagine in what really is quite a short time ago. 

 

When I first started to build my family tree on Ancestry, I couldn't get over how many children and ancestors died so young. So many in the 1800s, I actually thought there must be a mistake, but reading such information as found in that link,makes it becomes very clear the battle to survive was great.

[Chulla 4,946]

I have spent countless hours in family history research, much of which were burial records. I was amazed at the number of children who were stillborn. It is not so surprising when you think that pregnancy was no reason to cease a daily life of drudgery, often in squalid conditions and without a proper diet.This went on well into the last century.

[The Pianoman 1,535]

For the 1911 census we have the actual form. There is a column for 'number of children born alive', sub divided into 'children still living and children died. Every 1911 census form I have seen has a record of at least one child dying. It must have been expected. My G Grandmother on my mothers side died in childbirth in 1913. That wasn't uncommon either.

[DJ360 6,742]

All very true.

 

My  Paternal GG Grandfather (b. 1847) had about 12 kids, many of whom don't seem to have survived.

 

I may have posted this stuff before, so forgive me if I have, but it may give some idea.

 

My GGF on my Mum's side worked as a lock keeper on the Derby Canal at Borrowash.  His Lock Keeper's cottage was apparently only demolished in the 1930s.

 

The Minutes of the Derby Canal Mgt Commitee record that sometime around 1850 he asked that some timber he had purchased for 5 shillings be made into a cupboard and fitted to a wall of his cottage.  This was done and he was re-imbursed the 5s on condition that the cupboard became part of the property.

Later, he requested that floorboards be fitted to his cottage, as the earth floor was damp.  This was done.

Finally, at the age of around 68, he asked for an 'allowance' on the occasion of his giving up work.  This was forwarded for consideration.

 

The thing is that this was a man in long term employment who at least had accommodation and a regular income.  He was, I suppose.. 'Upper Working Class'

 

It is almost impossible to imagine what life was like for those who could not secure regular employment, had no trade, relied on 'cyclical' or seasonal employment and so on.

 

Col

[BilboroughShirley 1,120]

Life was very tough.  Childhood illnesses killed many.  In the days before the NHS medical care was usually unavailable to the poor.  My mum's little cousin caught meningitis and her parents could not afford a doctor so my grandmother paid for one.  The little girl survived and grew up healthy.  We take a lot for granted.