Morning Bill Many Thanks for all this information, you are a font of knowledge I have now concluded the number of infant deaths I have is about average for those times and have put this particular topic 'to bed' many Thanks Patrick -----Original Message----- From: aus-nsw-sydney-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:aus-nsw-sydney-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Bill Sent: Wednesday, 26 September 2012 9:35 PM To: aus-nsw-sydney@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [ANS] Help Needed on infant death statistics Dear Patrick, When I was extracting information for the Ryerson Index to Back Index the SMH I was using hard copies of the paper from Lithgow FHS. This gave me a better opportunity to see other things, and slowed down my real job dramatically. All sorts of news and Court information kept jumping out at me. Just to digress a little, authorities talk of fatal vehicle collisions these days, but I recall reading of several people killed by stepping in front of a horse drawn cab. These often show up as a Casualty to start with in either the Casualties column, sometimes headed "From the Hospital", then the next day or so there would be a report of the Inquest. Bear in mind that State Records have no actual Inquest papers for these times, just the Register. Each day there were reports, giving names, from the Water Police Court, Central Police Court, sometimes other Courts too, and on that page there were usually a couple of Inquest Reports. Inquests were mostly held at hotels, and in front of a Jury. The photographs I took are not really good as I didn't have a camera with Macro then, but have a look in the Sydney Morning Herald at headings like :- Statistics of New South Wales 1 Oct 1881, New South Wales in 1881 on 30 Dec 1881 which refers to a 135 page report. The Health of City and Suburbs 26 Jun 1885 , Mortality rate for 21 years, which is quite a large item. Statistical register for 1883. 8 Apr 1885. The Statistical Register of New South Wales, 18 Jul 1888 Growth of Population 4 Apr 1890, Australasian Statistics 19 Apr 1890. I can't pick it up at the moment, but some of these items under Statistics, Vital Statistics, or similar, must have come I think from the Government Gazette information but contained all sorts of information like acres of crops, Population, Number of horses, Miles or Telegraph under construction, Miles of Railway under construction. There was at least one of them I recall reading quickly that mentioned the number of deaths, disected into suicides, and all types of other causes. If you can find one of them it may give specific information on a particular area, like the area you are seeking. Also I recall some items headed Typhoid, so I wondered if that was a problem in the area at that time. Some of those items took up a couple of column inches, but others were just a couple of lines in the column "Country News", bearing in mind that places like Liverpool and Wahroonga were then in the country. I have copies of a couple of dozen of them, but I think you will get a better one off TROVE. Look forward to your publication. Regards, Bill > Hi again Mary > I am sure your assessment is correct, as I progressively found deaths > and burials I realised that there would be a high infant mortality > rate but thought I would see what other listers thought about a 25% > death rate and all those who have replied have made conclusions > similar to yours I do have one family who had seven children, the > first six of whom died at an early age and were buried in the Balmain > Catholic only the seventh child seems to have survived to AUS-NSW-SYDNEY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message Please remember to snip most of the earlier message before you post any reply...... Thank you! ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to AUS-NSW-SYDNEY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message