That was my thought too, June and Fiona. All of them had been ailing for some time. I did wonder why it seemed to get the young ones, though in hindsight, the girls would have been the ones likely to be at home and spending more time with their ill brother, and therefore been more exposed to airborne sick room bugs. Corinne Curtis #5579 On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 11:11 PM, June Willing <june.willing@one-name.org> wrote: > Hi Corinne > > The most likely explanation would be tuberculosis. This was commonly passed > on to other members of a family. Two of my great-grandfather's brothers died > of it, aged 25 and 23, within the space of a few months. This was in the > 1890s, but it remained a killer until the 1940s. > > June Willing > Guild of One-Name Studies member no 2117 > Willing/Willings One-Name Study > http://one-name.org/name_profile/Willing/ > Willing/Willings DNA Project > http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Willing/ > Dominicus One-Name Study > http://one-name.org/name_profile/dominicus-2/ > > > > On 29 Dec 2014, at 22:05, Corinne Curtis via wrote: > >> I've just come across something unusual in four siblings (teenage to >> early 20's) dying in succession over a period of about 3 years, as >> follows: >> >> Thomas travels from Camperdown, Victoria, Australia, to Rome (studying >> for the priesthood), returns ill in 1932, and dies Jun 1936, aged 28. >> His sister Norah dies April 1937 aged 19. >> Another sister Patricia dies Jan 1938 aged 21. >> Another sister Margaret dies Sep 1939 aged 17. >> >>> From the sequence of deaths, my theory is that Thomas brought back >> >> some kind of contagious illness from Rome, and then passed it on to >> his sisters. Thomas was said to have been ill for about 5 years, and >> was sick enough to return to Australia four years before his death. >> >> I know the only way to conclusively find out would be to obtain death >> certificates, but does anyone have any theories on what might have >> killed them? >> >> Corinne Curtis >> #5579 >> _____________________________________________ >> >> RootsWeb lists - surnames, regions, software, etc >> http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> GOONS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in >> the subject and the body of the message > >