Ruth A. Symes

Ruth A. Symes

Published: Practical Family History, April 2006

Excerpt begins

When I first found out that three of my ancestors drowned in separate incidents - in the same piece of water, the Leeds-Liverpool Canal in Wigan, Lancashire, I was rather shocked at the macabre coincidence and determined to find out more.

Unfortunately, it turns out that death by drowning was an all too common feature of life in industrial towns in the nineteenth century.

Canals and rivers could be death traps in more ways than one. Towpaths¹, which ran beside pubs and hostelries², were often unpaved and slippery late at night; they provided a conveniently ill-lit venue for drunken fights, robberies and muggings.

Local waterways also proved a popular repository for unwanted babies (some aborted, and some the victims of infanticide³), and last but not least, there was a significant rise in the number of suicides by drowning in Britain in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Excerpt ends

Technorati Tags: ancestor, ancestors, babies, britain, canal, canals, death, drowning, family, family history, geneaology, history, inns, lancashire, leeds-liverpool canal, pubs, water, wigan

convert post to pdf?

~~Dictionary~~
1 Towpaths
Definitions

1. a path (as along a canal) traveled especially by draft animals towing boats —called also towing path

Pronounciation: ˈtō-ˌpath, -ˌpäth
Function: noun
Date: 1788
2 hostelries
Definitions

1. inn, hotel

Pronounciation: ˈhäs-t^əl-rē
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
3 infanticide
Definitions

1. the killing of an infant
2. one who kills an infant

Pronounciation: in-ˈfan-tə-ˌsīd
Function: noun
Date: 1611
Etymology: Late Latin infanticidium, from Latin infant-, infans + -i- + -cidium -cide