All the Unknown Babies

 

Babies are such precious little bundles of joy. I'm always terribly saddened when I'm working on census records or obituaries and find clues to children who presumably died as infants or young children. I make it a point to add every unknown child to my tree, even when I know I'll likely never find any further information on them. I believe they deserve to be remembered.

Times were different in centuries past There was a much higher incidence of infant mortality. In the 1800's the infant mortality rate for children under 5 years of age was as high as 46%. That's almost 1/2 of all children born! By the 1900's this was down to about 25%. Today, thankfully, it's less than 1%. Before good recordkeeping on births and deaths, many of these tiny souls were never recorded. They may have been unnamed if they died at, or within a few days of, birth. While many were likely buried, it can be difficult to locate where. If there is a headstone, it may simply say "infant" or "baby". It may be impossible to determine if the child was a boy or a girl. Too many of these precious angels have long been forgotten. 

Before the 1900's it may be difficult, or even impossible, to ascertain how many children a given family may have lost. I've been lucky enough to find well kept church parish records from the 1800's in England on baptisms and burials, shedding light on some children in my tree. Thankfully, the 1900 and 1910 census gives us a glimpse of some these innocent souls. The questions about how many children were born to a mother, and how many children were still living as of the record date may help identify those who passed away too soon. Especially if you've done detailed analysis of the children who lived to adulthood, you'll likely be able to work out how many unidentified children there may be, or potentially determine if a child previously enumerated passed away in the decade between the censuses. Sometimes family histories written at the time will say how many children were born, but only name those who survived. Occasionally, an obituary of a parent or sibling might reference the death of a child, but often they go unmentioned. There are rare occasions where I've found an obituary for an infant or very young child, but it's the exception.

I also marvel at how the parents of these children carried on. I can't imagine the horrible pain of losing one child, let alone the families who lost several. In one case, I read about a family who lost all their children to illnesses within a very short span of time. The pain those parents felt must have been immense. But, since many likely had other children to take care of, they had to carry on. I wonder how often they thought of the children they lost? Did they lock the painful memories away in a corner of their heart? Did they remember them everyday? Or possibly, in a time when the death of children was tragically almost commonplace, was the outlook simply different? Was it just one less mouth to feed? Whatever the case, I choose to memorialize the children who died young, never having had the chance to live their lives. They are not forgotten.

Image by Andreas Wohlfahrt from Pixabay