Jan 20, 2016

Wednesday's child - Anna Timothea Carlsdotter

Death for any one person but especially the young is particularly tragic when it is a death that we know today is entirely preventable. And easily so.

My great great grandmother Sara-Brita Larsdotter was not the first wife of my great great grandfather Karl Andersson. He first had married Johana Edla Timetheidotter. He and Johana had a little girl Anna Timothea Carlsdotter. Then something terrible struck his and some surrounding farms in his Swedish village.

 below: 
Girl child; Anna Timothea Carlsdotter, from the farm Skäremo, died 09 Oct 1855 of Rödsot, she was 4 years 5 months and 4 days old
Housewife; Johana Edla Timotheidotter, from the farm Skäremo,  had died the day before, 08 Oct 1855, also of Rödsot, she was 29 years, 7 months and 4 days old
Mother and child were both buried 11 Oct 1855. Quite possibly in the same grave.


I blew this document up so you could read it more clearly but the entire page and the one before it is below just so you can see the magnitude of suffering in this community.

Rödsot is dysentery or extreme watery and bloody diarrhea. Most likely brought on by a tainted water supply. For three months the surrounding farms were burying their dead. Clean water...so easy...but unavailable even today to some in third world countries.


 (Swedish Church Records - Håcksvik, Älvsborg, Sweden 1830-1861, 
GID#1032.11.49100, Vol C:3, Roll#XY-1124, page 537)

Johana Edla Timotheidotter (the wife of my great great grandfather, Karl Andersson)
   born: 03 Mar 1825 Håcksvik, Älvsborg, Swedenweden
   died: 08 Oct 1855 Håcksvik, Älvsborg, Swedenw
Anna Timothea Carlsdotter  (my second great aunt)
   born: 05 May 1850  Håcksvik, Älvsborg, Sweden  
   died: 09 Oct 1855 Håcksvik, Älvsborg, Sweden





*click on documents to enlarge for easier viewing*

1 comment:

Joan said...

Very interesting post and documentation