Find Ancestors

Does anybody know if there was a cholera outbreak in Wycombe Buckinghamshire in 1849?

I have Mary Bateman, mother, dying in October 1849 and also her small children, Joseph, Mary and Elizabeth dying in October 1849. Her husband and one child survived.

It must have been cholera or something similar?

Thanks

Liz

There are a couple of google results for '1849 epidemics Buckingham'. One is a digitalised contemporary report you'd need to scroll through.

The obvious answer would be to purchase the DC.

Why cholera?

It could be anything.

As Dea says, the solution is simple

Burial records might indicate if a larger number than usual died in a short period. If that were the case, then an epidemic of some sort might be the cause Otherwise it could have been something like a house fire.

Have you checked the newspaper archives?

Thanks Dea and Jacqueline

Looks like cholera visited England in 1849 so that must have been what Mary and her three small children died of.

Hard times - but her husband remarried in three months time.

My grandmother, born 1877, had said that a lot of her parents' families died in a cholera outbreak, so will check that up as well.

thanks

Never Assume!! Typhoid, diphtheria, measles, flu, whooping cough, smallpox, polio , TB were all killers + any number of other illness we wouldn't think of.

If you aren't in a position to purchase the DC, email Bucks Archives. They may have something on record about epidemics in the area.

I found this post interesting. My paternal family come from High Wycombe and it was in fairly recent times that the remains of a 13th Century Hospital for Lepers were discovered......right under where my grandparents used to live.. :-D

found this its in kent

A cross was erected in the churchyard at East Farleigh to mark the burials. This was replaced in 1984 by a varnished wood replica but still bearing the same inscription :- "In memory of Forty-three Strangers who died of cholera Sepr 1849 RIP"


The summer of 1849 saw a widespread outbreak of cholera over the whole Country. By the beginning of September over 5000 deaths were recorded in one week.