Wednesday, August 26, 2020

#52 Ancestors 2020 - Week 35 - Unforgettable

#52 Ancestors 2020

Week 35 Unforgettable


The children who die young are often the forgotten members of our family trees.  They don’t grow up enough to make any mark on the world and they don’t marry and have children and grandchildren.

I have often thought about these forgotten children but the one who is truly unforgettable is this one:


Dulcie Eunice McCann was born on 26 December 1913, the 7th child of Charles and Alma McCann, Paul’s paternal grandparents.  Two years before her birth, her parents had lost their 5th child, a boy called Percival Alfred.  He was only three years old.  The Coroner’s Report states that he died of septicaemia as a consequence of an abscess in the pleural cavity – a condition easily treatable these days with penicillin.

We don’t know when this photo of Dulcie was taken but it must have been shortly before her death.  She died on 31 July 1915, when she was only 18 months old and the awful irony is that she died from injuries she received when she was kicked by a horse.

I have never been able to find the Coroner’s report and we don’t know where she is buried but this little photo is a poignant reminder of her short life.

1 comment:

  1. How sad! It's wonderful that you do have a photo of Dulcie. I can't imagine how a mother mourns the loss of children taken within a couple of years of each other, and still carries on.

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