Event in 1619?

[DebbieAnn]

I was just re-reading a part of my tree on my Dad's side and noticed that 3 children in the same family died either on 16 Apr 1619 or 19 Apr 1619.

Was there an epidemic at that time in Chesham, or maybe an accident of some sort, maybe an industrial accident, where 1 died right away and 2 held on a couple more days?

Their names were: Lydia (27), Dorcas(22), and Thomas (19) Searles/Sale/Saile and they were children of Edward and Elizabeth Sale/Saile/Searles.

Debbie

[Geoffers]

I was just re-reading a part of my tree on my Dad's side and noticed that 3 children in the same family died either on 16 Apr 1619 or 19 Apr 1619. Was there an epidemic at that time in Chesham, or maybe an accident of some sort
First off, I don't know.

But, you can sometimes get an idea by looking at all the entries in a parish register over a few years. This will give you a clue as to the average number of burials and whether there was a peak in 1619. Looking at the register, check to see if it affected just your family, or a couple of families, or many families.

If there isn't a peak in burials, or there is a peak and it just includes a couple of families, it might raise the suspicion that this was something that just affected one part of the parish - this could be disease or natural disaster (e.g. flood or fire). If there were lots of burials over a period of weeks/months and many local families affected, then this would suggest some outbreak of disease.

Some clerics were very helpful and included notes about unusual events in a parish, there are numerous examples on these forums.

Geoffers

[DebbieAnn]

Unfortunately, living in Canada, I can't get to the registers in England. Are there copies for sale that I should purchase?

Debbie

[Colin Moretti]

Hello Debbie

Have you seen this thread?

http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10774

Colin

[Peter Goodey]

It might be worth trying the Chess Valley Archaeological and Historical Society. Someone there ought to know the answer.

If you Google for it you should find some contact names and email addresses.

[Geoffers]

Unfortunately, living in Canada, I can't get to the registers in England. Are there copies for sale that I should purchase?
If you cannot puchase copies of registers/ATs/BTs; you can always hire film copies of registers via mormon record centres.

Silly question perhaps, but how do you now the dates of burial if you haven't viewed the registers?

Geoffers

[DebbieAnn]

Geoffers,

Because they (other children of the same parents) and their descendants were Pilgrims, it's pretty well documented from their arrival in Massachusetts, as well as some info from the first generation back. But there are several instances of conflicting information, so I was hoping to get some sort of original documentation to help figure it out for certain.

I'll check out the site Collin pointed me to, and see if I can get some answers from there...

Thanks to all of you!

Debbie