#52ancestors – Week 43 Cause of Death

So, I’ve been absent for months as life took over but have decided to make an effort to get back into it.

The prompt of ’cause of death’ was a easy one for me as one particular ancestor’s cause of death has given me  a lot of thought recently as to my own lifestyle and health. I was recently looking back over some certificates, looking for any missed clues as I did some more research on my mother’s family. I was looking at the death certificate of my great, great grandmother Elizabeth Hartley nee Brownlow,  not really expecting to see anything different, when the cause of death jumped out at me from the paper. She had died from a coma as a result of Diabetes Mellitus. As she was 72 years of age at her death, I think it’s safe to say that she suffered from Type 2 diabetes, which is a mature onset form of the disease usually caused by diet and lifestyle choices.

Elizabeth Brownlow-Hartley (Death)-1xnb78w

This really shocked me, as Type 2 diabetes is something that is discussed quite a bit in my family. My mother has Type 2 diabetes as did her mother (my maternal grandmother). As a result, I know quite a bit about the disease and know that I fall into a high risk category as both my mother and grandmother ended up with the disease. However, no one in the family realised that the disease went so far back in our family history. My mother never knew this ancestor of ours as she died long before my mother was even thought of, but as a result of finding out that this woman likely had type 2 diabetes as did my grandmother prompted my mother to hypothesise that perhaps her grandmother (my great grandmother) had the disease as well.

With some further digging into my great grandmother, looking at photographs and her death certificate, I have found that she was a very large woman and that at the time of her death she was suffering from sleep apnoea which is common in individuals with type 2 diabetes. My mother lived with her grandmother as a child, and remembers the amount of food that they ate and how much of it was fatty food. Poor diet is a number one risk factor in developing type 2 diabetes, as is being overweight or obese as well as genetic factors such as a parent or other close relative having the disease. Therefore, it is likely that my great grandmother suffered from the disease as well.

My great, great grandmother Elizabeth Hartley nee Brownlow. c.1933, the year she died

This is one instance where my family history research has proved to be of practical use, in providing me with information about diseases which are prevalent in my family. It has also proved of interest to others in my family and set off warning bells in my head to change my diet and lifestyle whilst I am still young enough to prevent developing the disease.

 

My great grandmother Edith Thompson nee Hartley. Unknown date.

 

#52ancestors – Where there’s a will

Still playing catch up but here is my post for ‘Where’s there’s a will’.

I had to think hard about this one as not many of my ancestors left behind a will, as generally they didn’t have much worth passing on. However, the will I am writing about was one that was a surprise not only to me but to the family still remaining.

Mary Ann Webber was born in New South Wales in 1853 and is my 3x great grandmother. I don’t know a lot about her family, besides the fact that her parents arrived in Australia as Assisted Immigrants in 1851, just two years before Mary Ann’s birth, and that they originally hailed from Milverton, Somerset. Mary Ann was born in Berry Park, which is in the Newcastle district with the family staying in the Newcastle area for the next decade or so. However, they eventually moved to the Lismore area and it was here in 1872 that Mary Ann married John Mallett. The couple had a large family, who were all raised and married in the area with many descendants still living there today.

Now, to the will. Imagine my surprise when playing around on the State Records site one day, just typing in names into Archives Investigator to see if anyone in my tree had a probate file. Mary Ann’s husband John didn’t have a probate file but his name came up in the results list as Mary Ann had a probate file. Well, this was a momentous discovery. She is one of only two women I’ve come across in my tree who have had enough property for a probate to be deemed necessary. Enclosed in the probate packet is a will, dated 13 August 1910 which was acted upon on Mary Ann’s death in 1916.

What is interesting is that at the time of the will being written, and indeed at the time of her death, Mary Ann’s husband is still living and yet the property at which the couple reside in Show View Street, Lismore is owned by Mary Ann. In the early 1900s it was still very unusual for a married woman to own property in her own right, yet here was a woman with just that. I don’t know where the property came from yet, perhaps her parents? But, I do know where the property went after her death. Out of all her children, male and female, Mary Ann left her property to her youngest daughter Hannah Maria Darch Mallett.

The house that the Thompsons lived in. Show View Street/Parade Street, Lismore.

Why did she leave the property to Hannah? Well, the will doesn’t give a reason but perhaps it was due to the fact that at the time the will was written all her other children were well established with spouses and children and Hannah was not. It could also have to do with the fact that at the time the will was written, Hannah was not married but she did have a newborn daughter. So perhaps it was her mother’s way of ensuring she was looked after even if she didn’t find a husband? Interestingly, the will specifies that the property should remain in Hannah’s name even if she should marry which she did in 1911. So Hannah then became a woman of property as her mother had done. This perhaps was a blessing as it gave Hannah and her husband, along with their young family, a stable home which they might not have had otherwise. Hannah’s youngest child  recalls that there was never very much money around when she was growing up, and expressed great surprise at the fact that the property had been owned by her mother. On Hannah’s death, the property passed into the ownership of her husband Thomas Thompson where he remained until old age.