The theme for week 9 of the 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge is multiples. I was struggling with this theme. Nothing jumped out at me that was interesting enough to write about.
But thanks to Valerie Hughes from the "Genealogy with Valerie" blog, my writers block was cured. Valerie wrote about finding several lines where she descended from two siblings in her blog post Multiple ~ 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks #28. This blog post is not about the same topic, but Valerie sparked an idea. You should check her post out when you get a chance.
My story for you this week is about my 3rd great grand uncle William Faught and his son Francis (Frank) Faught.
William Faught, the brother of my 3rd great grandfather George Faught, was the son of Irish immigrants born in New York in about 1835.
William married Sarah Ann Miller on January 13th, 1864 in Sanilac County, Michigan.
William and Sarah were blessed with their first child Frank Faught in October of 1865 and their second child Philip Faught in 1866. Based on census and death records, it appears that WIlliam and Sarah had two additional children that passed away during childbirth or at a very young age.
Sarah and William moved to Long Rapids Township, Alpena County, Michigan sometime between their marriage in 1864 and June 4th, 1870 when they were recorded in the 1870 census.
Based on an 1889 Alpena City directory, the 1900 US census and newspaper articles about Frank's death, William and Sarah's son Phillip Faught passed away sometime between 1889 and June 26th, 1900. I have not yet found a death certificate for Phillip.
William's wife Sarah passed away on November 16th, 1902. Leaving William widowed.
Based on the 1900 census and the newspaper article that I found, Frank was unmarried and living with his parents on their farm in Maple Ridge Township in Alpena County.
On September 6th, 1909, WIlliam died of heart disease and old age. His death certificate states that he died at the "County House". My assumption is that this was a poor house.
So you are probably wondering what this story has to do with the theme of multiples...
Well, Frank Faught passed away on September 10, 1909, only 4 days after his father. It appears, from the newspaper articles that I found, that Frank died of heart disease while walking down one of the main streets of Alpena.
The death certificates of both William and Phillip are below. You will notice that Frank is listed as the informer on William's death certificate.
I'm not sure that I would have made this connection, but the untimely death of both father and son in the same week from the same disease made the newspaper. Their deaths were reported in both the Detroit Free Press and the News-Palladium newspaper of Benton Harbor, Michigan.
Both articles can be found below.
Interesting enough, when I started this post I was focused on William and Frank Faught. However, while writing it I realized that all four Faught family members, William, Sarah, Frank and Phillip died between 1889 and 1909. So within a 10 year time period every member of the William Faught family had passed. That is definitely multiple deaths in a family in a short time period.
I was a beginning genealogist at the Rutherford B Hayes Presidential Library printing off a list of family newspaper obituaries when I laid them out in a row and realized that one family had a number of obituaries the same month. A helpful librarian looked over my shoulder and said, “oh, the influenza epidemic”. The first obituary, my great grandmother, noted that various family members were unable to attend the funeral due to illness.
Very interesting! Social history is always a good context clue.