Miners found and lost in one week

[MythicalMarian]

It took me forever to trace my Ibbotson family in the censuses - you would not believe the number of mis-spellings this surname can have. I finally found my great-great-grandfather, together with his siblings and parents on the 1841 and 1851. Then, within the same week, finding no trace of his Dad and brothers on any census after that I discovered from the Cheshire BMD that all three died in the same quarter of the same year in the same district.

Knowing that they were miners led me to smell a rat, and sure enough, searching the mining links given on this forum I found a disaster that happened in February 1858 in Ashton-under-Lyne, when the Diamond Pit at Bardsley suffered an explosion that killed 53 men and boys. My two young Ibbotsons were among them - death certificates have confirmed today, and my great great great grandfather William died a week later of his injuries. The two boys George and Ralph were only 17 and 13 years old respectively. William was 39.

It made me feel very very sad, to discover them one minute and lose them the next, and it made me wonder if others have felt this sadness when discovering new ancestors who are cruelly taken away like this? I went through a similar sadness on discovering my Stockport Stokes lads dying in the First World War.

Am I alone in this, or do we all get involved emotionally with these events because we know we have kin among them? It makes the disasters so much more personal.

[KateJones]

No, you're not alone. I imagine anyone feels emotion to realise what our ancestors lives were like. You've only got to have seen Jeremy Paxman crying over his ancestors to realise that it can affect anyone. We can do nothing, it's in the past, but these people are our flesh and blood. Isn't that part of why we are interested in genealogy - to get a feel for what their lives were like? I don't just want a list of names and dates, the more I know about their lives, and deaths, the more real these people are to me - and therefore I will grieve for them.
KJ

[Barnzzz]

I'm sure everyone will find tragedy in their family tree and probably lots of it. There is no doubt life was much harder for most of our ancestors than it is for us today.
One of mine, Percy, was making bombs in a trench in WW1. The fuse of his particular bomb caught fire and couldn't be exstinguished and so he threw himself on it, presumably to try and put it out, with obviously fatal result. When I discovered this, all I could think about was how his parents must have felt. I hope they weren't provided with the full details.

Sue

[v.wells]

No, you're not alone. I imagine anyone feels emotion to realise what our ancestors lives were like. You've only got to have seen Jeremy Paxman crying over his ancestors to realise that it can affect anyone. We can do nothing, it's in the past, but these people are our flesh and blood. Isn't that part of why we are interested in genealogy - to get a feel for what their lives were like? I don't just want a list of names and dates, the more I know about their lives, and deaths, the more real these people are to me - and therefore I will grieve for them.
KJ

I couldn't agree more! I have felt such sorrow at some of my ancestors' losses and immense pride in their achievements! If they were alive and here today, I would take their hand and thank them for just being. They had such difficult lives compared to today that it is extremely humbling to find them in any circumstance. I feel that most family researchers get to "know" their kin by experiencing their lives thru them.

[KateJones]

Sorry, suffering from too much UK bias, apologies. I suddenly realised that people outside the UK probably won't have any idea of who Jeremy Paxman is. He's a TV journalist known for his extremely tough 'rottweiler' interview technique. He was seen in the genealogy programme "Who do you think you are?" on British TV, crying over the lives that his ancestors had lived.
Cheers
KJ

[MythicalMarian]

Sorry, suffering from too much UK bias, apologies. I suddenly realised that people outside the UK probably won't have any idea of who Jeremy Paxman is. He's a TV journalist known for his extremely tough 'rottweiler' interview technique. He was seen in the genealogy programme "Who do you think you are?" on British TV, crying over the lives that his ancestors had lived.
Cheers
KJ

That was indeed a heartbreaking episode, Kate - knowing Jeremy Paxman as we do. And what a contrast with the episode that featured actress Sheila Hancock, who was clearly miffed that her antecedents were such a lowly bunch. You would have fully expected it to be the other way round.

[*bunty*]

I went thorugh Durham coal mine deaths and Ian Winstanley's pages on coal mine deaths and found several of my Parish men killed. It does make you feel sad :(.

[Ladkyis]

Early in our research on my husband's family we were told, by great Uncle Bert, that his mother had five children that died. We went to the record office and searched and found the baptism of a son in November 1899. We then looked at the burial registers for the church and found the record for the burial of a 16 month old daughter in September 1899.
The thought of burying a child is bad enough but I suddenly imagined the trauma of either having just given birth to a son or to be very close to giving birth when your daughter died. I sat at the microfiche reader with tears coursing down my face. My poor husband was at a loss, he could only hand me a hanky (he is old fashioned enough to carry several) and put his arm around me until I could speak.
I think that was when the people became people and not just names on pages.