how tragic....

my great grandparents weren't the only ones losing young children.....Thomas Armfield Brown and wife lost 4 of their 7. (their son maried his daughter

Edith Brown 12JUNE1907-7APRIL1908

Cleo May Brown 24AUG1908-27Nov1909

Herbert Ray Brown 27Nov1920-7FEB1925

Mary Alice Brown 12AUG1926-15OCT1926

no causes of death listed.

my grandparents lost Eugene Higdon Maxwell 1JAN1907-8OCT1910

Joseph Henry Maxwell 16JULY1909-3OCT1910

I know the Maxwell boys cause of death was given as Diptheira

the 2 oldest Brown children dates don't quite match up.

but there were so many horrible ways for children to die back then...thank God we now have baby shots! and clean drinking water...our homes are easier to keep clean and dry and warm...and easy access to medical care.

Dora Gardner Brown was born 4JAn1885, so she was 35 when she had Herbert Ray, and 41 when she had Mary Alice. she had 2 stillborn granddaugthers from her oldest daughter Eva. I don't know how effective birth control was back then, but it had to be hard figuring out you were pregnant when you had already lost children.

and then the serial killer reading part of me kicks in....and Munchausen by proxy pops into my mind. which I am sure is not the case here. I am a bad person....