Did any one in your family tree expire in dramatic fashion?

[JoeyP37]

My great-great-grandfather Frederick Whitman shot himself (as did his younger son Elmer) while his wife Susie Turner Whitman drowned herself in the Pawtuxet River; ironically her son Walter, my great-grandfather, helped build the dam upstream that created the Scituate Reservoir during the Depression and changed the site of his mother's demise from a swift-flowing mill stream to a placid, gentle, fine-fishing river.

[rms2]

One of my third cousins three times removed, Harold Leon Stevens (1894-1924), was working as a lineman in Kansas City, Missouri, when the pole he was working on fell, and he fell along with it.

He was born in Ohio but grew up in Bloomington, Illinois. The article below is from the Bloomington, Illinois, paper, The Pantagraph, Christmas Day, 1924, page 6.

Stevens_Harold Leon_obit article.jpg

[FionnSneachta]

I never heard that he was married, there was no mention of her in the obituary and he would have been very young to be married so I have my doubts about that. However, his sister in America wasn't mentioned in the obituary since only the chief mourners were listed. I'll have to get his death record some time to confirm it.

Well I ordered the death cert. It seems that they weren't recording marital status on death records in 1925 in Wales. I just took it for granted that it would be present.

[rootseeker47]

My 7th great grandfather and grandmother both were killed, along with dozens of other French settlers in the "Lachine Massacre" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lachine_massacre near Montreal in 1689. Their names were Pierre Dagenais and Ann Brandon, whom both sailed to the future Canada (then called New France) in the mid-1660s. Ann was, evidently, not Catholic, so therefore, urged to leave France in the 1660s. She was one of the "filles du roi," (Daughters of the King) whom were sponsored by Louis XIV to emigrated to New France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_Daughters

I recently learned that my mother's father's family were all French Canadian going back to the 1600's. I have documented that about 9 of the roughly 750-800 filles du roi, were my direct ancestors. As were all of their husbands. In addition, about six "filles a marier" (women to marry) and their husbands were earlier emigres to New France. Thus, my ancestors were a significant portion of the early European emigrants to the new world in Canada, which totaled not more than about 3000 in their time. https://habitantheritage.org/cpage.php?pt=19

[Mr.G]

We have a family story, from my Hungarian side, that supposedly the individual died of fright. As the story goes, this relative was on a hunting trip and died when they were suddenly started by something.

[JMcB]

My 4th Great Uncle was a Surveyor in Georgia during the early 1800s. He died when a tree fell on him while he was out on the job.

[lana6765]

One of my Liverpool ancestors died in a train accident.

He was 21 and his young wife had just given birth to a son (my ancestor). The family lived in Liverpool City and he was a railway worker. They had a small terraced house, one of those classic ones (I found a picture!)

The story goes, he dodged out of the way of one train to get hit by another.

His wife moved to Lancashire to live with her husband’s family. My ancestor never knew his father. His mother remarried and had more children I think.

[Dave-V]

Ok I'll post another one here.

My great-great-grandmother survived her husband who died in 1900. In 1909 she was 68, semi-retired and living alone on her farm; all three of her daughters lived some distance away including my great-grandmother who lived the farthest.

In my great-grandmother's papers the family found the following series of letters she had saved from her mother and sister from 1909 as follows (I'm paraphrasing, of course):

Jan 1909 from Mother: "Hi dear, it's been a long winter but I'm doing ok. Haven't seen much of the neighbors because I'm having some trouble getting around".
Mar 1909 from Mother: "I didn't get into details because I didn't want to worry you but I hurt my leg last August and my foot is now very swollen and I can't get around much at all but I don't want to complain".
Late Mar 1909 from Mother: "Oh, I do hope my granddaughter is doing well in her new married life and here's a bunch of details about the farm and not a word about my injury at all".
Late Apr 1909 from Sister: "I'm sorry my first letter didn't reach you but Mother lasted about a week after the doctor came and took the leg off. Her foot was [I'll spare you the description but it was no longer a foot]. The blood poisoning was just too much for her heart and she passed suddenly while lying on the dining room table as the nurse was changing her bandages."

I often think about that series of letters whenever I put some antibiotic cream on a fresh cut and then forget about it. Or when I'm tempted just to grit my teeth and ignore some pain until it goes away.

[lana6765]

Another great great uncle died as a result of mercury poisoning, which he got from working in a weapons factory during WW1.

I think some of the workers poisoned themselves and or had accidents. There’s stories about some of them turning yellow.

[rod]

My 7g grandparents and 3 of my 6g grandfather Anthony Swartwout's siblings were killed in the July 1756 Hunt-Swartout raid.