I've just found a couple 1911 censuses where there are a large number of children born but only one or two survive. Could one reason be the problem with the mother's blood type being rhesus negative where the first child survives if rhesus positive but because antibodies have then built up any subsequent rhesus positive children will have their blood cells destroyed? Hope this makes sense!!! Joan

Hi Joan Without documentary evidence, such as death certs, anything else is pure guesswork Large fire or accident, various diseases etc all can be a factor but without investigating in more detail you are not going to know for sure Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 22-Jan-17 4:44 PM, Joan M via DERBYSGEN wrote: > I've just found a couple 1911 censuses where there are a large number of > children born but only one or two survive. Could one reason be the problem > with the mother's blood type being rhesus negative where the first child > survives if rhesus positive but because antibodies have then built up any > subsequent rhesus positive children will have their blood cells destroyed? > Hope this makes sense!!! > > Joan

Hi Nivard, You are totally correct in that it can't be proven and I suspect because the condition wasn't know about a death certificate wouldn't prove much unless it specified a particular event such as accident etc. I think the only indication (and then it's not certain) would be if the first child survived then the rest died, just an interesting thought as a rhesus negative person myself. Kind regards Joan -----Original Message----- From: DERBYSGEN [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nivard Ovington via DERBYSGEN Sent: 22 January 2017 16:49 To: [email protected] Cc: Nivard Ovington Subject: Re: [DBY] rhesus factor Hi Joan Without documentary evidence, such as death certs, anything else is pure guesswork Large fire or accident, various diseases etc all can be a factor but without investigating in more detail you are not going to know for sure Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 22-Jan-17 4:44 PM, Joan M via DERBYSGEN wrote: > I've just found a couple 1911 censuses where there are a large number > of children born but only one or two survive. Could one reason be the > problem with the mother's blood type being rhesus negative where the > first child survives if rhesus positive but because antibodies have > then built up any subsequent rhesus positive children will have their blood cells destroyed? > Hope this makes sense!!! > > Joan ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

I find it an interesting thought too Joan, a possibility I hadn't thought of when looking at some Parish records I have showing a family having 6 children, only one of whom survived to adulthood.. The first born 1693 was the survivor, the next b. 1695 lived 11 days, next b. 1696 lived 5 yrs. next b. 1699 lived 1 yr. next b. 1701 lived 2 yrs. next b. 1703 died 10yrs. & lastly one born 1705 with no further records shown. The first born survivor married and had 4 sons, one of whom died at 1 yr. which isn't actually relevant to the theory though. I believe various infections (other than diseases) was a very common (but unknown at the time) cause but it seems unlikely that one family should be so unlucky, having coped well with their first born. So, your theory could possibly be correct - but as Nivard has pointed out we will never be able to know cause of death for certain. Future researchers are going to be so lucky with everything documented aren't they? Kathy in Kent Sent from my iPad On 22 Jan 2017, at 17:26, Joan M via DERBYSGEN <[email protected]> wrote: Hi Nivard, You are totally correct in that it can't be proven and I suspect because the condition wasn't know about a death certificate wouldn't prove much unless it specified a particular event such as accident etc. I think the only indication (and then it's not certain) would be if the first child survived then the rest died, just an interesting thought as a rhesus negative person myself. Kind regards Joan -----Original Message----- From: DERBYSGEN [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nivard Ovington via DERBYSGEN Sent: 22 January 2017 16:49 To: [email protected] Cc: Nivard Ovington Subject: Re: [DBY] rhesus factor Hi Joan Without documentary evidence, such as death certs, anything else is pure guesswork Large fire or accident, various diseases etc all can be a factor but without investigating in more detail you are not going to know for sure Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > On 22-Jan-17 4:44 PM, Joan M via DERBYSGEN wrote: > I've just found a couple 1911 censuses where there are a large number > of children born but only one or two survive. Could one reason be the > problem with the mother's blood type being rhesus negative where the > first child survives if rhesus positive but because antibodies have > then built up any subsequent rhesus positive children will have their blood cells destroyed? > Hope this makes sense!!! > > Joan ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the