Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Baby Charles Saunders 1886-1886


West Monkton, the parish church of St. Augustine, 
From geograph.org.uk, Author Barbara Cook, Aug 31, 2006

I made some discoveries this morning regarding to the family of my great grandfather, Herbert Charles Saunders. (See my blogpost  Herbert Charles Saunders, 1884 to 1966, Part One). I was able to discover through www.freereg.org.uk that Herbert’s mother, Mary Jane Goff Saunders, was buried in West Monkton in the churchyard of St. Augustine on November 14, 1886, having died on November 8th. Also buried there was the five-day-old Charles Saunders on October 30, 1886. We knew from Mary Jane’s death record that she died of tuberculosis, but there was no mention of the complications of childbirth. A family story stated that she had died “in childbirth”. Here we have evidence that she died very soon after the birth of her last son, Charles, so it is possible that childbirth was a factor in her death. So, we know now that Mary Jane had another son, Charles, who was born alive. I was able to locate records through the birth and death indexes which correspond to the burial record for Charles, and I may send for one or both of them.