My mother's father and mother were not the luckiest of parents.
George Thomas Tovey (1871-1949) married Rebecca Brown (1871-1945) in 1891. In 1894 they were living at Back 239 Great Colmore Street where Rebecca gave birth to a son, also named George Thomas. This little boy died of acute pneumonia and cardiac failure just one month after his second birthday. After my mother's birth, three years later, a further daughter was born in 1901. It seems that the family were then living at Back 74, Main Street, Aston (actually Sparkbrook). Again aged only two, this little girl died on 20 April 1903 at Queen's Hospital, the cause of death being shock following head injuries after having been run over by a cart. An inquest, conducted by Isaac Bradley, Coroner for Birmingham, was held two days later on 22 April when a verdict of "Accidental Death" was returned. A further daughter had been born in 1902. The two surviving children did later compensate a little for the early loss of their two siblings: the final daughter lived till 83 and my mother achieved a remarkable 96.
The marriage did not survive these tragedies. In around 1904 or 1905 it collapsed and the two little girls went their different ways to be brought up. This is a picture of my mother at around this time, probably in the garden of her grandmother at Knowle where she spent the rest of her childhood.
The cause of the breakup is unknown but may of course have been linked to the earlier tragedies. Rebecca was known to have had some predeliction for "the sauce bottle" but whether that occurred as a result of the loss of her children, or was even an indirect contributory cause to their death, we shall never know. Rebecca was thereafter effectively written out of the family history book. My mother always denied her existence to us, her own three children. As far as we were concerned, she was dead and I always assumed that this occurred as a result of childbirth. So we were brought up lacking a beloved and indulgent "Grannie". After my mother's death in 1996 it came as something of a shock to find that our grandmother had lived on until 1945, an even greater shock to learn that mother and daughter had maintained regular contact up until WW2. The parents never divorced.
I'm wondering if any member can advise me where I might find further information about the little girl's tragic death, i.e contemporary newspaper and inquest reports. I assume that all this information resides in the Birmingham Library but is there likely to be any online source of information?
George Thomas Tovey (1871-1949) married Rebecca Brown (1871-1945) in 1891. In 1894 they were living at Back 239 Great Colmore Street where Rebecca gave birth to a son, also named George Thomas. This little boy died of acute pneumonia and cardiac failure just one month after his second birthday. After my mother's birth, three years later, a further daughter was born in 1901. It seems that the family were then living at Back 74, Main Street, Aston (actually Sparkbrook). Again aged only two, this little girl died on 20 April 1903 at Queen's Hospital, the cause of death being shock following head injuries after having been run over by a cart. An inquest, conducted by Isaac Bradley, Coroner for Birmingham, was held two days later on 22 April when a verdict of "Accidental Death" was returned. A further daughter had been born in 1902. The two surviving children did later compensate a little for the early loss of their two siblings: the final daughter lived till 83 and my mother achieved a remarkable 96.
The marriage did not survive these tragedies. In around 1904 or 1905 it collapsed and the two little girls went their different ways to be brought up. This is a picture of my mother at around this time, probably in the garden of her grandmother at Knowle where she spent the rest of her childhood.
The cause of the breakup is unknown but may of course have been linked to the earlier tragedies. Rebecca was known to have had some predeliction for "the sauce bottle" but whether that occurred as a result of the loss of her children, or was even an indirect contributory cause to their death, we shall never know. Rebecca was thereafter effectively written out of the family history book. My mother always denied her existence to us, her own three children. As far as we were concerned, she was dead and I always assumed that this occurred as a result of childbirth. So we were brought up lacking a beloved and indulgent "Grannie". After my mother's death in 1996 it came as something of a shock to find that our grandmother had lived on until 1945, an even greater shock to learn that mother and daughter had maintained regular contact up until WW2. The parents never divorced.
I'm wondering if any member can advise me where I might find further information about the little girl's tragic death, i.e contemporary newspaper and inquest reports. I assume that all this information resides in the Birmingham Library but is there likely to be any online source of information?