The mystery death of Kezia Rosina Southon

I often seek to investigate the reason for unusually young deaths within my family tree - especially as we get into more modern times when such things were at least a little rarer (well, supposedly). One such case was my 2nd Great Aunt, Kezia Rosina Southon who died aged 22. Rosina was the name given my birth mothers sister so it appeared to have been passed on and was something that had profoundly affected the family. Rosina has appeared, so far, just one other time before in my maternal family.

I received her death certificate yesterday and the cause of death was as equally surprising as the location.

Kezia Rosina Southon's Death Certificate

She died on the 21st of June 1915 at the Royal School for the Blind in Leatherhead. This location is now called "SeeAbility". I certainly prefer the original name!

Her death was listed as Peritonitis, lasting 5 days, and exhaustion. On wikipedia the potential causes of this "include perforation of the intestinal tract, pancreatitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, stomach ulcer, cirrhosis, or a ruptured appendix". It is likely she suffered greatly in the lead up to her death which is ia hard thing to deal with. Her job was a laundry maid, meaning she was employed there, and died "on the job". Nowadays, she would have likely been told to leave and been treated, and possibly saved. This is assumptive on my part - and i am not medically trained to properly interpret this.

The real tragedy is that a 22 year old girl - with a future ahead of her, had her life snuffed out. Her death, at such a tender age, would have been deeply traumatic for the immediate family. Jane Southon, my great grandmother, was just 36 when he sister died. Her daughter, Maude, my grandmother name her first daughter Rosina Simms. Rosina Simms was 10 when Jane passed away. The name passed on showing that there was clearly a great effect on the family.

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Tracking down Frank Bloxham - Part 1

Frank Bloxham has no direct connection to me as such - however, his likely son, Frank Henry Simms does indeed carries the genes of my 2nd great-aunt Charlotte Simms. I contacted a descendant of the family of Frank Henry Simms and passed the information i had over. I decided to take a closer look at this individual. To uncover the story behind the article and to track his movements after - and also, his origins. He was commonly called "Frank" (as such many were) but was born Francis A Bloxham . Francis Bloxham - 6 years old in the 1881 census. Like many families in Brailes there were common groups of families. The Bloxhams were quite a unique name and not as common compared to others. Brailes being as small as it was - and still is - it remains comparatively easy to track them around. Whilst working for a grocer in the following census he met Charlotte Simms. 1891 census. Francis was working as a grocers apprentice and Charlotte as a general servant (domestic).

Charlotte Simms, her son born out of wedlock, and who the probable father was.

As i go through my family tree i often mark down individuals for further consideration, especially if they are not priority research targets, and especially if initial research yields little. One such person was Charlotte Simms . I came across her when i was filling out the family of my 2nd great-grandfather William Simms. I found her, and marked her down with her year of birth, which was 1876 and in Brailes. I tend not to go into huge detail on indirect descendants of my connections straight away - and, even less so, those that are daughters. These can be, and are, explored at a later date. However i came across a curious article about a young girl called Charlotte Simms who simply had to be the same person. The story, published on the 14th of April 1892, and warranted deeper investigation. Article published 14th of April 1892 She was making a case against a young boy called Frank Bloxham that he was the father of her son born just a couple of months before on the 2nd of Jun

Standard Offering - Sample Output

I wanted to give an example of what can be expected for a standard offering. I was able to turn around the following, with appropriate citations (from BMD / census records) fairly quickly. The standard offering is a "no frills" 5 generation family tree ( your great great grandparents ). All i required was whatever information could be provided to me. To produce this tree the client gave me his name and birthday, his parents names and birthdates and his grandparents names. This may not be possible in every case - or more could be provided - but it is usually enough to do the job. There is also no guarantee that a tree can be filled out entirely. In this case it was. In the interest of confidentiality - the client, and his, parents are not included in the below screenshots. I loaded this .GED file into ancestry.co.uk to demonstrate, if you like, that you are able to continue the research yourself. The standard offering can be a good primer and start point for that. On the

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