Stock Photo of English Countryside
I'm participating in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge started by Amy Johnson Crow, professional genealogist. Each week we use a new prompt as a theme. This post is later than usual because I needed to get information about each family on the website. Each page (except George) has some facts about their lives, but I will be re-writng at some point to add more information.
John, John, John, John, and Johnny
There are four generations of John Worths, then a skipped generation, then the one final John.
The last John Worth, called Johnny by his sister, Lizzie (Worth) Jones, was born 20 April 1890 and died 20 May 1891 in the West End community of Loup county. He was buried in the family plot 10 miles away in the Almeria Cemetery. Johnny was 1 year and 1 month of age and was the 7th of 13 children born to George and Flora (Swift) Worth. John died on 20 May 1891 and his next sibling, Freddie, was born and died on 7 November 1891. Eventually five of George and Flora's children would die before age 16 months of age. Why did two babies die in the same year? The drought that helped bring on the economic depression of the 1890s was causing poor crops. Johnny and Freddie were Flora's 7th and 8th children in 10 years. It may be safe to assume their deaths were because of poor nutrition. Flora must have been worn down. There were no vitamin supplements to take like there is today. If the milk cow had dried up there would be no milk to supplement what Flora could provide.
His brief life is listed on the tombstone of the person he was named after, his grandfather, John Worth, (1815-1893).
I've posted a rough draft for each of the preceding four John Worths here. They are a work in progress…I just needed to get this posted!