52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 41 Prompt - Context

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 41

Prompt – Context

My maternal second great grandfather is Johan Andreas Krikau. He was born July 31, 1837 in Warenburg, Samara, Volga Valley, Russia. He married twice. His first wife was Katharina Margaretha Kramer. Johan and Katharina had 5 children together. Katharina died in 1875 and Johan remarried Elisabeth Barbara Doering. Elisabeth Doering is my biological second great grandmother. Johan and Elisabeth had 3 children together of which my great grandfather was Andreas Krikau. Johan Andreas Krikau died in 1895 in Warenburg, Russia. I realized that his first wife was only 38 when she died and he was only 55 years old when he died. In my opinion that seemed young.

I know that my maternal great grandmother, Elisabeth Doering remarried after Johan Andreas Krikau died but I do not know when and where she died. I am working on that.
I have unsubstantiated information that Elisabeth Doering had 11 siblings as follows:

The thing that struck me is that of those siblings that I have data for that they all died young and between the years of 1863 and 1883. Most of them died in their teens or early adult years. The last two siblings died when they were about 4 years old.

These statistics seem unusual even for the late 1800's. It makes me wonder if these deaths are caused by something else.

I recall from one of my genealogy classes that we discussed the cholera outbreak in the late 1800s that stopped immigrants from coming directly into Canada. They were stopped at Gosse Isle, Quebec and quarantined together until healthy. However in a story for another time, the close confines caused more to die. My next step is to look for what endemic or pandemic diseases might influence the death rate in this area of the world.

I found the following article.

And the first paragraph.

Although typhus was a concern in the time period I am looking at, I continue to look for other pandemics in the region. Cholera!

Between 1816 and 1923 - 6 pandemic outbreaks of cholera occurred. Cholera is a particularly nasty infection of the intestine caused by a bacteria not discovered until the late 19^th century. One is infected usually by the oral – fecal route Meaning that the bacterium exists in contaminated water and food by infected feces. It can take hours to 5 days for the symptoms to appear. They include extreme diarrhea leading to dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and kidney failure to death very quickly.

The first pandemic occurred from 1817 to 1824 and started in India and spread to Asia and Africa.

The second pandemic occurred from 1829 to 1837. Again originating in India, it spread to Russia, Hungary, France, England and by way of immigrants over the sea to North America and then Brazil. During this time they did not know how it spread. In France doctors believed it was associated by poverty and poorer communities. Russians believed it was contagious and the English believed it was brought on by divine intervention.

The third pandemic occurred between 1846 and 1860. This is the pandemic of cholera that affected Russia the most and it is believed that nearly a million persons died. It did travel over most of the new world, South America, Indonesia, Japan, China, It was during this time that a physician by the name Doctor John Snow determined that the infection was spread by contaminated water. However it was not widely believed as correct.

The fourth pandemic was from 1863 to 1875. It began in the Bengal region and spread out due to the Muslim pilgrims to mecca. From here it spread out to Russia, Europe and much of the same route but it was noted that it originated from port cities.

The fifth pandemic occurred between 1881 to 1896. It claimed over a quarter of a million persons in Russia alone. It was however the last major outbreak in Europe due to the improved water and sanitation systems.

The sixth pandemic occurred from 1899 to 1923. Western Europe was not as affected as the Russian and Ottoman Empires. It is estimated that over 500,000 persons died in Russia between 1900 and 1925. The cholera outbreak was blamed on the social disruption (revolution), famine and war.

Although I can't prove it by death certificates it seems likely to me that the pandemic spread of Typhus and the more likely cholera pandemic is responsible for the early deaths in the Doering's family.

In the context of the ongoing pandemics of that time period, I believe that I can come closer to the reason for this one family's early deaths.

Wendy