What happened to Thomas and Mary?

Today I stumbled over something that had thus far escaped my notice. My Great, great Grandparents, Thomas and Elizabeth Davis, had two children while living in Yorkshire, England, who did not survive. Thomas Davis Junior, born in 1859, and Mary Davis, born in 1861, are missing from the 1871 census. I didn't notice they were not present because my great, great grandparents had two more children once they had returned to Wales and these children were also named Thomas and Mary. Thomas number two was born in 1867 and Mary number two was born in 1869 in the county of Glamorgan.

So what happened to the first Thomas and Mary? I checked for Yorkshire death notices for both children, but found only an 1866 listing for a young Thomas "Davis", not "Davies" as the family was calling themselves while in Yorkshire.

So I checked death notices for the Welsh county of Glamorgan where the family had relocated by 1867. There I found a Thomas and Mary Davies, both born on the correct dates of 1859 and 1861, who had died in the fall of 1866.

Naturally, I started wondering what might have caused both children to die around the same time. I soon discovered that Britain was experiencing the third of three great cholera epidemics in 1866. According to one source I found on the web, as many as 14,000 people died throughout the island. Incredibly, my search revealed that a total of 146 people named Davies died in the same district in 1866.

Now here's the most interesting part. Thomas and Elizabeth Davis, my great great grandparents had a total of five children while living in Yorkshire, England. The two youngest, as we've seen, probably died in the great cholera epidemic of 1866. The next oldest of the five children, young George Davis, somehow survived that tragic time to one day become a very, very important person in my life -- my great grandfather.