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December 2015 Moms
NellieHarringtonCarter
member
Possible TRIGGER (maternal death) - A story about a weird connection to family history
NellieHarringtonCarter
member
This one is a little bit of a different kind of post. It's not really a vent or asking for advice, but it's been on my mind for a bit, and keeps getting a little weirder as D-Day draws closer, whenever that may be. I threw a trigger warning on it because it does discuss maternal death, though it occurred over a century ago, so maybe I'm being a little overly cautious.
I'm pretty big into family history research and genealogy. Sure, I do it for my job, but I also do it as a hobby, and I've been pretty successful in uncovering stuff that my own family, especially my grandparents, didn't even know. One of the biggest mysteries was my great great grandmother, whom my grandfather never met, but always heard about in sort of a hushed way. I was able to not only uncover who she was, who were parents and adoptive parents were, etc., but was also able to find three photographs of her as a toddler, a teenager, and a young bride. And let me tell you what, showing an 80 year old man a photo of his grandmother for the first time in his life is a pretty great feeling.
Anyway, because I spent so much time looking for her, I developed a little bit of a connection with her. In fact, I use her name as a pseudonym on these boards (nope, Nellie isn't my real name), and for a while used her photograph as my own avi.
A few weeks ago, I was looking over some of my stuff when I remembered/realized that Nellie was also a December mom. Sure, it was December 1903, but it still got me thinking about how my own pregnancy paralleled hers.
Nellie married my great great grandfather when she was 16, and by the time she was 21, was pregnant with her fourth child, my great great uncle. Sometime in late November or early December, Nellie, her husband, and their two surviving children decided to leave Ionia County, Michigan and travel across the state to Lapeer County, where they would visit her husband's family for Christmas and also have the new baby. I think they took the train. I mean, I HOPE they took the train, because I can't imagine a 35+ week pregnant woman traveling along dirt or snowy roads across Michigan in a horse and buggy in 1903.
So here's another trigger warning. Spoiler alert, this does not have a happy ending.
Nellie gave birth to a boy on December 21, 1903 at the home of her in-laws. She died seven days later of Puerperal Fever. The story doesn't get much happier after that, either.
It all depends on how far I've progressed by my OB appointment tomorrow, but guess what day I'm scheduled to be induced?
December 21.
I'm not freaked out or superstitious, or in any other way thinking that it's a mystical connection or anything. I just find it an interesting coincidence and it has caused me to reflect on what being pregnant meant 50 or 100 years ago compared to now. It's caused me to be thankful for antibiotics and modern medicine, and to be mindful of what is going on with me. Like my mom said, "women really don't die of puerperal fever anymore because of modern medicine and an increased knowledge of infection and causes, etc." Of course, she added "Then again, people aren't supposed to get rheumatic fever anymore, either."
Thanks, Mom.
So I hope I didn't upset anyone. Like I said, this has been on my mind the past few weeks, and when I found out that my anticipated induction date matched the day her son was born, it hit a little closer to home than I expected.
I'm pretty big into family history research and genealogy. Sure, I do it for my job, but I also do it as a hobby, and I've been pretty successful in uncovering stuff that my own family, especially my grandparents, didn't even know. One of the biggest mysteries was my great great grandmother, whom my grandfather never met, but always heard about in sort of a hushed way. I was able to not only uncover who she was, who were parents and adoptive parents were, etc., but was also able to find three photographs of her as a toddler, a teenager, and a young bride. And let me tell you what, showing an 80 year old man a photo of his grandmother for the first time in his life is a pretty great feeling.
Anyway, because I spent so much time looking for her, I developed a little bit of a connection with her. In fact, I use her name as a pseudonym on these boards (nope, Nellie isn't my real name), and for a while used her photograph as my own avi.
A few weeks ago, I was looking over some of my stuff when I remembered/realized that Nellie was also a December mom. Sure, it was December 1903, but it still got me thinking about how my own pregnancy paralleled hers.
Nellie married my great great grandfather when she was 16, and by the time she was 21, was pregnant with her fourth child, my great great uncle. Sometime in late November or early December, Nellie, her husband, and their two surviving children decided to leave Ionia County, Michigan and travel across the state to Lapeer County, where they would visit her husband's family for Christmas and also have the new baby. I think they took the train. I mean, I HOPE they took the train, because I can't imagine a 35+ week pregnant woman traveling along dirt or snowy roads across Michigan in a horse and buggy in 1903.
So here's another trigger warning. Spoiler alert, this does not have a happy ending.
Nellie gave birth to a boy on December 21, 1903 at the home of her in-laws. She died seven days later of Puerperal Fever. The story doesn't get much happier after that, either.
It all depends on how far I've progressed by my OB appointment tomorrow, but guess what day I'm scheduled to be induced?
December 21.
I'm not freaked out or superstitious, or in any other way thinking that it's a mystical connection or anything. I just find it an interesting coincidence and it has caused me to reflect on what being pregnant meant 50 or 100 years ago compared to now. It's caused me to be thankful for antibiotics and modern medicine, and to be mindful of what is going on with me. Like my mom said, "women really don't die of puerperal fever anymore because of modern medicine and an increased knowledge of infection and causes, etc." Of course, she added "Then again, people aren't supposed to get rheumatic fever anymore, either."
Thanks, Mom.
So I hope I didn't upset anyone. Like I said, this has been on my mind the past few weeks, and when I found out that my anticipated induction date matched the day her son was born, it hit a little closer to home than I expected.
Re: Possible TRIGGER (maternal death) - A story about a weird connection to family history
To be honest, the time frame for when they traveled across the state is a guess. They lived near her adopted parents and her husband was a farm laborer for them, so once the harvest and all that was brought in, they may have traveled a little earlier in the year, maybe October or November.
I got from her death certificate that died in Lapeer County (Puerperal Fever, Peritonitis, and Heart Failure), that she had been seen by a doctor starting on December 19 and that she died at 10pm on December 28. It says on her certificate that she was buried back in Ionia County on December 31. Her son, who lived, was born in Lapeer County, but his birth certificate is actually filed in Ionia County, with a note that he was born in Lapeer County, so at least at the time of her death, they were still permanently living in Ionia County (they later moved to Lapeer County, and the baby was raised by my gr gr grandfather's parents, while the two other children were raised by my gr gr grandfather and eventually his second wife, whom my grandpa describes as "an old mean biddy"). My grandpa didn't even know that his dad (the second eldest child) was born in Ionia County.
Again, the travel stuff is mostly just a guess, but there is a railroad that runs directly from Ionia (the station is only a 10 minute trip from their old farm by car) to another station in Lapeer (which is about a 15 minute drive from the family farm there). If they didn't take a train, there is also a main road (Route 21) that runs straight across, too.
Like I said, I get really into this stuff