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20 years of children’s deaths in a 19th century island community

I’ve recently been looking at death records for the North Walls and Brims area, Orkney, Scotland, and one of my questions was “Were there many who died as young children?” I have a partial answer from the wonderful Populations Past website, the Atlas of Victorian and Edwardian Population. That site shows that in 1861 the  |  more…

Crofters’ Commission records for family history

Were your ancestors crofters? That is, living in one of the seven crofting counties of Scotland – Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty, Inverness-shire and Argyll – with a holding of not more than £30 in annual value or rent. If the answer is yes and they were there from 1886 onwards there’s a  |  more…

No medical attendant

“No medical attendant”, “no medical attendant”… a repetitive litany through the civil death registrations in North Walls and Brims, Orkney, 1855-1865. If that is the refrain, then the verses include “Unknown” or “Supposed… water in the head/ disease of the heart” etc or “Old age”. In fact, of 71 deaths registered 1855-1865 only three were  |  more…

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