When I first started researching my family, I was shocked when I found so many "three-fers." I had known since I was a kid that my Great-Grandma Schwartz had outlived 3 husbands. But I was scandalized when I discovered that SHE had been the third wife of my Great-Grandfather and the second wife of my grandmother's first stepfather (who had been married to Great-Grandma's younger sister!). But after a few years of research, I realized that there were good reasons this happened so often. I didn't find much in the way of divorce or abandonment - just a lot of people who died prematurely from (usually) epidemics or wars or childbirth - with the occasional railroad or streetcar midadventure thrown in. Life in the old days was not for sissies. And New Orleans, in particular, seems to have been a Pit of Pestilence into the early 20th century. Kathleen, in Connecticut, by way of New Orleans ----- Original Message ----- From: calyx corolla <calyxcorolla@hotmail.com> To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Sent: Sun, 22 Jul 2012 23:44:50 -0000 (UTC) Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] DNA ethnicity test What I find fascinating about NOLA is there are so many people who had 3 or more partners and produced 3 or more sets of half-siblings and from there it gets REALLY convoluted. As my marraine's husband said once: "Don't ask ME what those old people were doing!"

Pit of Pestilence, indeed! That would be funny if it weren't so pathetic and true. I wonder if it was the climate, or peoples lack of hygiene? Or medicine had little means of dealing with contagion? Anyway, it is very sad to me where I find a mother and infant that died within days of each other. I can't imagine giving birth every year, year after year, and then expiring because my body was just plain drained and worn out and my immune system so low that anything might carry me off. What a difference a century makes! > Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 01:54:51 +0000 > From: k-wieland@comcast.net > To: laorlean@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] DNA ethnicity test > > When I first started researching my family, I was shocked when I found so many "three-fers." I had known since I was a kid that my Great-Grandma Schwartz had outlived 3 husbands. But I was scandalized when I discovered that SHE had been the third wife of my Great-Grandfather and the second wife of my grandmother's first stepfather (who had been married to Great-Grandma's younger sister!). > > But after a few years of research, I realized that there were good reasons this happened so often. I didn't find much in the way of divorce or abandonment - just a lot of people who died prematurely from (usually) epidemics or wars or childbirth - with the occasional railroad or streetcar midadventure thrown in. Life in the old days was not for sissies. And New Orleans, in particular, seems to have been a Pit of Pestilence into the early 20th century. > > Kathleen, in Connecticut, > by way of New Orleans > > > >> > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message