Our Ancestors Experienced Death Much More Often Than We Do Today

 I have copies of two photos of my great great grandmother Anna Wilhelmina (Ladewig) Bruguier. One was taken when she was young. The other looks like it was taken when she was in midlife.




She looks a little sad, doesn't she? She had good reason to be sad. 

I’ve been doing genealogy for over 25 years, and when I survey all the ancestors whose lives I’ve studied, my great great grandmother Anna Wilhelmina (Ladewig) Bruguier stands out as the person who suffered the most losses of family members. It makes me wonder how this affected her. Was she bitter? Apathetic? Depressed? Religious? Angry with God? Alcoholic? We will never know, since there is no one left alive who knew her, and I have never seen any diary or letters from her. One thing is sure, however, had she lived today, all of those deaths could have been prevented by today’s medical care.

In 1900 and 1910, the U.S. government was so concerned about childhood mortality that it instructed census takers to ask how many children each adult woman had borne, and how many were still alive. In both censuses, Anna’s answer was 16 children, and only 4 were alive. I knew Anna was a German immigrant, so I thought, well, she probably didn’t speak English that well, and she meant she had given birth to 6 children.

Well, not so. First of all, she came to the U.S. when she was eight years old. Children of that age pick up new languages very quickly. Secondly, I’ve seen her in census records in 1860, 1865, 1870, 1880, 1885, 1895, and 1900. In those years, at least, she always lived in a neighborhood where her immediate neighbors were native English speakers. Although she married another German immigrant, Francis Bruguier, and likely spoke German at home, her English was probably fluent.

However, it is New Jersey birth and death records, and some church records, that tell the story. I haven’t found records for all 16 children, but I have found records for 10, that prove Anna lost at least 6 children that we can document. More than one died of what the doctors of the time called “marasmus,” which was basically starvation. Evidently, she was usually pregnant, and her body didn’t have the resources to breastfeed her child. There may have been more, but at least, I have found civil or vital records to prove these deaths (including family members before she had children):

·        When Anna was about 14, her baby brother Edward Ladewig died at age 1.[1]

·        Anna lost her first child, Arthur, to scarlet fever when he was almost 3 and a half.[2] That’s treatable with antibiotics today, but it was a major childhood killer in 1869.

·        In late 1870, Anna’s older brother Gustav died of typhus; he was only 31 and left behind a wife and four small children.[3] That disease is almost unknown today.

·        Anna’s baby Frank Jr. died in 1871 when he was 3 and a half months old of “cholera infantum,” which was probably diarrhea, again, treatable today.[4]

·        In 1876, Anna’s baby Richard died at four and a half months old of “debility.”[5]

·        The next year, her baby Bertha Emma died at two and a half months old of marasmus.[6]

·        In 1882, her daughter Clara Hermine died at age 4 of bronchitis.[7]

·        In 1885, her baby Franz Alexander Edward died at age 3 months of marasmus.

This is a level of personal loss that is unfathomable to me. I am so grateful to be living today.

[1] "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F69V-J57 : accessed 1 April 2023), Edward Ladewig, 30 July 1861, Kings, cert. no. 612.

[2] Newark, Essex County, N.J.,  Deaths Atlantic-Warren Co. v. AO-AP 1870, p. 247, 14 Dec. 1869, no. 1381, Arthur Bruguier; “New Jersey, U.S., Birth, Marriage and Death Records, 1711-1878,” database and images, Ancestry: accessed 5 Mar. 2023) >  Deaths > 1870 > Atlantic-Warren > Deaths Atlantic-Warren Co. v. AO-AP 1870 > image 259 of 807.

[3] Hoboken, Hudson County, N.J., Deaths Atlantic to Warren 1871, p. 359, 18 Dec. 1870, no. 819, Gustav Ladewig; Return of Deaths; N.J. State Archives, Trenton, N.J.; “New Jersey, U.S., Birth, Marriage and Death Records, 1711-1878,” database and images, Ancestry (ancestry.com: accessed 27 Mar. 2023) > Deaths > 1871 > Atlantic-Warren > Deaths Atlantic-Warren Co. v. AQ-AR 1871 > image 393 of 843.

[4] Newark, Essex County, N.J., A-S Atlantic to Hudson 1872, p. 218, 18 July 1871, no. 457, Carl F. E. Bruguier; Return of Deaths; N.J. State Archives, Trenton, N.J.; “New Jersey, U.S., Birth, Marriage and Death Records, 1711-1878,” database and images, Ancestry (ancestry.com: accessed 5 Mar. 2023) > Deaths > 1872 > Atlantic-Hudson > Deaths Atlantic-Hudson Co. v. AS 1872 > image 243 of 497.

[5] Newark, Essex County, N.J., Deaths Atlantic-Hudson Co. v. BA 1876, p. 402, 25 May 1876, no. 3670, Richard F. Bruguire; Return of Deaths; N.J. State Archives, Trenton, N.J.; “New Jersey index to records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1848-1900,” database and images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99G7-F93T-H?i=446: accessed 7 Mar 2023) > DGS 4210808 > image 447 of 782.

[6] Newark, Essex County, N.J., Deaths Atlantic-Hudson Co. v. BE 1878, p. 232, 2 August 1877, no. 564, Bertha E. Bruguier; Return of Deaths; N.J. State Archives, Trenton, N.J.; “New Jersey, U.S., Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1711-1878,” database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 9 Mar 2023) > Deaths > 1878 > Atlantic-Hudson > Deaths Atlantic-Hudson Co. v. BE 1878 > image 271 of 587.

[7] Newark, Essex County, N.J., Births Atlantic-Hudson v. 10 1881-1882, unpaginated, 26 July 1881, line 25, Bruguier,; “New Jersey index to records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1848-1900,” database and images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89G4-4SZ4-9?i=248: accessed 7 Mar 2023) > DGS 4209019 > image 249 of 541.

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