Destroying family lore

[Mike Henderson]

I wonder how many live births made it to adulthood in those times.

From some research I've done, prior to the 19th century, about 40% of children never lived to their 16th birthday. Almost all deaths from disease. That's from memory - I don't have the data in front of me right now. [Here's one source.]

And then, of course, you had the Black Deaths in Europe which wiped out a significant portion of the population, young and old (estimates range from 30% to 60% of the European population).

Mike

[Tom M King]

One of the old houses I work on was owned by a family that had 10 children before 1800. Four lived to be adults. I expect that was worse than typical, but one of the main reasons our life expectancy today is better than even early in the 20th Century is the difference in infant mortality.

My Mother, who is now 106, had one Ancestor in 1770 that died when he was 97. The wagon he was driving down a mountain lost control, and rolled over on him. He was by himself.

[Michael Weber]

I have little interest in my genealogy. I would however love to know more of the story of my paternal grandfathers family who died when I was a child. He was sent alone to the US by his family in 1878 at the age of 14 to avoid his induction into the Prussian army. That was a brutal existence and more or less a death sentence. I can’t imagine arriving in NYC alone at 14 and would like to know his thoughts. I have a few facts about him but nothing about his family. I was told in the 1970’s by an Uncle who was an amateur genealogist and had tried to trace his family that all the wars had destroyed any records that might have existed. Other than that I just accept the probable fact my ancestors were plain folks doing the best they could. I did do the DNA thing which showed a mostly Northern European heritage and I have the natural immunity to smallpox to prove it

[Rollie Meyers]

While I have no personal experience DNA testing has exposed secrets that were thought to be forgotten.