• March 19, 2024
 Genealogy study – the argument for vaccinations

Genealogy study – the argument for vaccinations

Debate continues to rage among sectors of the population about the rapidly developed vaccinations against Covid-19.

Our attention was drawn to a recent tweet where someone had talked about his family—an uncle who survived polio and was now 70, and another who caught scarlet fever that resulted in pancreatic failure, and was dead at 36.

The tweet ended with the message that everyone in his family got vaccinated. Responding to it, one Twitter user pointed out that anyone with an interest in genealogy would find plenty of deaths from diseases that are now vaccine preventable in their family tree, and many others jumped in, agreeing with the statement.

Infectious diseases

With 2020-21 the obvious exception, when the UK’s NHS was established 73 years ago, infectious diseases were far more prevalent (2020-21 being the obvious exception). A lot of our time is spent ploughing through census records and death certificates, and you do not need to go that far back to find infectious diseases as the cause of death.

Aside from Covid-19, the last major outbreak of an infectious disease was the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920. World-wide, it killed between 20 and 50 million people, and 200,000 people in the UK, about 0.5 percent of the pre-war population.

But many other diseases killed people in the 19th and early 20th centuries before vaccinations were created that have more or less extinguished deaths from such causes in the 21st century.

Highly contagious

They include diphtheria, a highly infectious condition that can lead to kidney and bleeding problems and an abnormal heart rate and was most likely to affect and kill children. One of its more famous victims was Princess Alice, the daughter of Queen Victoria who died after she and her family contracted the disease in 1878 at the age of 35. Her four-year-old daughter, Princess Marie also died.

A vaccination against diphtheria was created in 1926 and the first dose is generally given to babies at around six weeks of age, later doses taking place during childhood.

Whooping cough is another highly contagious condition that often killed babies and children. The vaccination came into being in 1914, and the mass vaccination programme was introduced in the 1950s, greatly reducing the number of outbreaks.

Edward Jenner and the smallpox vaccination

One of the most famous vaccination stories is Edward Jenner and the smallpox vaccination. Another highly infectious disease, smallpox is thought to have lived alongside humans for thousands of years – mummies from 3rd century BCE Egyptian tombs have been found to have it.

Jenner carried out a famous experiment in 1796, when he inserted pus extracted from a cowpox pustule on a milkmaid’s hand, into an incision on the arm of an eight-year-old boy. He followed country folklore that claimed people who developed the milder cowpox never caught smallpox and his reasoning proved sound, leading the way for the smallpox vaccination, which led to the extinction of the disease in many countries.

As everyone who has studied their family history will know, infectious diseases were responsible for many premature deaths, and had a significant effect on overall mortality. In 1915, for example, the UK’s average life expectancy at birth for a man was 48.4 years and 54 for women, whereas by 2015, it was 79.3 and 82.9 respectively. A salutary lesson indeed.

 

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This article was submitted to be published by Finders International as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Wills and Probate. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Wills and Probate.

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Finders International logo   Finders International were established in 1997 by Managing Director Daniel Curran. We trace missing heirs and beneficiaries to Estates, property, funds and assets worldwide. We also provide a range of Legal Support services and International Asset services including overseas bankruptcy services and Medallion Signature Guarantees. Within the private sector, we work with numerous Solicitors, Accountants, Corporate or State Trustees and financial institutions. In the public sector we assist local authorities, coroners and others in tracing next of kin. For 4 years running, we have been awarded ‘Best UK Probate Research Firm’ since 2019 at the UK Probate Research Awards, and have won the same award at the British Wills and Probate Awards in 2020. We complete hundreds of pro-bono cases every year, helping with stories of reunions of family separated by war or forced adoption and reuniting people with family heirlooms such as their ancestors lost war medals or long-lost books. We are also a founding member of IAPPR, the International Association of Professional Probate Researchers, Genealogists and Heir Hunters which aims to provide a single, authoritative voice for global probate research industry professionals and has an impressive list of international member companies. For a free no obligation quote, queries or advice, contact our team via the details below.   Key Contact: Name: Danny Curran Tel: 020 7490 4935 Email: contact@findersinternational.co.uk Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heirhunters/ Address 6-8 Vestry Street, London,  N1 7RE Key services

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