BIRTH . . . DEATH . . . INFINITY

Does anybody remember watching “Ben Casey” back in the early days of television? Remember how it started with someone drawing the symbols while intoning, “Man; Woman; Birth; Death; Infinity”?

I thought of Ben Casey today as I was downloading digital images from the Old Parish Registers of Scotland – births, marriages, deaths. Here’s a sampling of some of our relatives for a few years in the late 18th century:

• 1774 - Birth of John, son of John Little and his spouse, Mary Armstrong
• 1775 - Death of John, son of John Little and his spouse, Mary Armstrong
• 1776 - Birth of John, son of John Little and his spouse, Mary Armstrong (babies were often given the name of a child who had died)
• 1779 - Birth of Margaret Petrie, daughter of John Little and his spouse, Mary Armstrong
• 1780 - Death of Margaret Petrie, daughter of John Little and his spouse, Mary Armstrong

(Baptism and Burial records for John, son of John Little)

When the government took over civil registration in 1855, one of the columns in the register was titled “When and where married; issue, living and deceased”.  On just one page from 1855, here are extracts from the five entries in that column:

• 2 boys and 2 girls living, 1 boy deceased (married 9 years)
• 2 girls living (married 5 years)
• 1 boy living, 1 boy and 1 girl deceased (married 7 years)
• 1 boy living, 2 girls deceased (married 4 years)
• 1 boy living, 2 boys deceased (married 7 years)

Life expectancy in Britain in the late 18th century was about 40 years. And yet, many of our ancestors and relatives who lived at that time died in their 60's or 70's. It was that high rate of infant deaths that brought the life expectancy down. I suppose the women either learned to cope – or else they didn’t. I’m grateful for modern medicine.

 (By the way, if you never watched “Ben Casey”, here’s a link to a video clip of the first 18 seconds of the show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjq1P5p3fso )