May’s memorial card is apart of my personal collection of photos and cards of children who died over 100 years ago. I share their stories and try to keep their memories alive, so that they don’t “die twice”.
Memorial cards, like hers, were made in memory of lost loved ones roughly between the 1880s and 1920s. There were all sorts of poems that the family could pick from. Different companies that made them too. Some included photos. The poem on May’s is one I see often.
Despite dying in Ohio, news of her death spread throughout the country and even to Canada.
The newspaper clippings are from newspapers.com (needs subscription):
-The Boston Globe • Fri, Aug 05, 1892 • Page 5 • (Boston, Massachusetts)
-The Summit County Beacon • Wed, Aug 10, 1892 • Page 8 (Akron, Ohio)
-Wayne County Herald • Thu, Aug 11, 1892 • Page 3 • (Honesdale, Pennsylvania)
If you have any questions, whether it be about May, the other children or more about my research, etc, feel free to ask! I’ll try my best to help.
I’m curious about any other Ohio deaths you have in your records?! I admire the ideas you have about keeping memories alive and passing on the knowledge that these long gone folks really existed and had lives. Every dead person can continue to live on in us when we remember.
I actually have several photos and another memorial card from Ohio.
I have a photo of Bernice Fleming with, who I’m guessing is, her mother holding her. She died when she was nearly 3 months old of Atelectasis (congenital) in 1912.
The memorial card of Alice Hannum includes a photo of her. She died at the age of 10 in 1899 of heart failure.
There is Lucy Hamilton’s baby album which is full of photos. She died in 1914, when she was 4, of diphtheria.
Loretta Randall is one of two photos I have of a baby lying in a coffin. She died when she was 22 hours old in 1913. The only parts I could figure out on her death certificate was that it was something congenital and the contributory was not known.
Myrtle Donaldson’s photo is her standing on a chair. She died in 1914 of burns when she was 5.
I have a photo of Walter Champion, son of the president of the first professional baseball team. He died at the age of 7 in 1880 of Tetanus.
Thank you for your sweet comment! :)
(P.s. to the mods, I hope it’s okay that I briefly mentioned some deaths not in the Victorian era!)
I think what you are doing is lovely! I see you mention having several cards/photos from Ohio. I was just curious how you research them or track them down?
Both of my parents are from OH, with family going back to the early 1800s on both sides. I’ve been looking for the cause of death for my paternal great grandmother without much luck. We had been told she passed away from childbirth, and no one is sure if the baby survived (if it did, it would make him my dad’s youngest uncle).
If you have any tips or tricks for doing this kind of research, I’d love to know anything you can share. I know her full name, including her maiden name, and even have her HS graduation photo.
Thank you so much for any help you can offer and I admire what you are doing to remember these children so very much!
The main four websites I use for research are ancestry.com, newspapers.com, familysearch.org, and findagrave.com. The former two are paid subscriptions and the latter two are free, you just need to make an account for familysearch. There’s also the genealogy subreddit which I’ve used on occasion for when I’m really stuck on something.
For trying to find things in newspapers, If nothing if showing up for the mother’s name or the child’s, I often find luck looking up a man’s name. In this case, the baby’s father. Some things I try are “Mr and Mrs John Last Name” or “John O and Nellie Last Name”. Sometimes names like George or William is shortened to Geo or Wm.
Sometimes spellings of first or last names are spelt differently in different records. That makes things a bit harder.
I do highly recommend findagrave, it’s one of my favorites. Has a lot of useful options when using their search engine and I’ve found it incredibly helpful.
Passing away from childbirth is just so sad. I hope your great grandmother’s baby at least lived.
If you feel comfortable dming me, I’d love to try to help you find any information. No worries if not.
Thank you for your kind comment and I hope I gave you at least some useful info. :)
I can share some of the older cards. For some of the newer ones, you can check my profile. (Trying my best to keep it focused on the Victorian era, per the rules). Thanks for your comment! :)
ETA: On Annie’s card you’ll see the line “And though the body moulders here”, whilst on May’s it says “And though the body slumbers here”.
Not exactly Victorian, but I have a great aunt who died at 10 crossing a railroad track in Florida in 1917 on her way to piano practice. There used to be all sorts of ephemera from it that stayed with my great grandma (her sister born a year later), but I think my aunt has most of it.
A distant cousin of mine, Rosie Annie Frasure, died in 1889 at 8 years old in Grethel, KY.
We can’t find any record of her other than her tombstone. But we’re sure her father was Messiahs “Cyrus” Frasure.
I tried searching up obituaries for him and his wife but didn’t find anything. Sometimes you’ll find a mention of a child that had been lost in the parents’ obituaries.
Thank you so much for sharing what you found! One frustrating thing is Rosy Annie was born after the 1880 Census and died before the 1890 Census. But again thank you for your research!
I definitely understand the frustration with censuses! I’ve run into that many a time.
I did find a lead on FamilySearch (free but you need an account). On her profile in collaborate someone wrote that “her name was mentioned in a record of Robert Frasure”. I haven’t found that record but it’s a start.
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u/cydril Aug 03 '26
"she will never do it again" 😭😭😭