Died as Infant vs Died as Child

[Bob Emnett]

Re: Died as Infant vs Died as Child

Well, all rules have exceptions. Many people are familiar with George Foreman's five sons named George. There is also the Reuss family of Germany which for centuries named every son Heinrich, giving them a number in order of their birth, (starting over at "I" each century) so that Heinrich LXIII Reuss, for example, was father of Heinrich IV, Heinrich VI, Heinrich VII, and Heinrich X....

Well, had not heard of that one, but it might inspire a variation on a song! ... So, with apologies to Herman's Hermits and their British music hall predecessors, I offer ...

... Every son was a Heinrich, nary a Wilhelm or a Sanuel. I'm Heinrich Viii I am ...

Sorry about that. Couldn't resist.

[Mary Arthur]

Re: Died as Infant vs Died as Child

I know of a case where the father came home from town, sometime after the birth of child #12, and was asked what he registered her as, he told his wife, who pointed at toddler (#11) and said, but that is her name . . . oh well, he said, we will call her (name left out to protect privacy), and so they did, when she was getting married she legally changed her name!

[Michael Talibard]

Re: Died as Infant vs Died as Child

Be careful about using this rule of thumb.

You are quite correct, of course. The re-use of the name is evidence of a death (as I said) but not proof (as you rightly remind me). It can be a useful working assumption, however. Deaths are much harder to find, in my experience, than births or marriages, because they can occur at any time from 0 to 100 years or more after birth, and reading faded documents in bad handwriting in a foreign language is hard work. So an indication that a death is likely to have occurred in that (say) two-year period before the next birth is often useful.

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Died as Infant vs Died as Child

Be careful about using this rule of thumb. I have seen a number of 16th-18th-century families that used the same name for more than one living child. My favorite example is [...] for two generations at least we know of brothers named John Tarraunt.

Well, all rules have exceptions. Many people are familiar with George Foreman's five sons named George. There is also the Reuss family of Germany which for centuries named every son Heinrich, giving them a number in order of their birth, (starting over at "I" each century) so that Heinrich LXIII Reuss, for example, was father of Heinrich IV, Heinrich VI, Heinrich VII, and Heinrich X....

[kmuch]

Re: Died as Infant vs Died as Child

I also use (roughly) 2. The 'roughly' can arise when one is pretty sure of the death, but doesn't know the date, except as a 'before'. For example, in the parts of the world I research, people often react to the death of a baby by re-using the name for the next child. I take this as evidence of the death, since nobody's going to want two consecutive living Mathurins or Charlottes in one family. Where there's a Mathurin between the two Charlottes the age at death of the first becomes more problematic, and I use 'died as child'. Of course, I also search for more direct evidence.

Be careful about using this rule of thumb. I have seen a number of 16th-18th-century families that used the same name for more than one living child. My favorite example is an English will: "John Tarraunt the elder" in 1575 says that he is the son of John Tarraunt and has a brother John Tarraunt; he leaves property to "John Tarraunt my sone's sonne ... and my son John Tarraunt." John the son in his 1587 will names "my eldest sonne John Tarraunte ... my third sonne John Tarraunte ... and my youngest sonne John Tarraunt." He also names "my sonne John Tarraunt sonne of my wyfe Rebecca," but he is probably the youngest John. So for two generations at least we know of brothers named John Tarraunt. I hope that family used nicknames!

[suzivegemite]

Re: Died as Infant vs Died as Child

yep I'm with the rest, up to about 2 is infant, and 2-13 as child

[Michael Talibard]

Re: Died as Infant vs Died as Child

You are probably going to get as many responses as users of Reunion! For my DB, I am always consistent - an infant is 0 - 2 years of age and a child is from 2 -13 [because in Judaism, that is the age of bar mitzvah when a child is declared a man].

I also use (roughly) 2. The 'roughly' can arise when one is pretty sure of the death, but doesn't know the date, except as a 'before'. For example, in the parts of the world I research, people often react to the death of a baby by re-using the name for the next child. I take this as evidence of the death, since nobody's going to want two consecutive living Mathurins or Charlottes in one family. Where there's a Mathurin between the two Charlottes the age at death of the first becomes more problematic, and I use 'died as child'. Of course, I also search for more direct evidence.

[martha]

Re: Died as Infant vs Died as Child

What age do you use as the cutoff for saying that someone died as an infant versus a child?

I realize it's a matter of personal preference; I'm just trying to get a feel for the majority convention.

You are probably going to get as many responses as users of Reunion! For my DB, I am always consistent - an infant is 0 - 2 years of age and a child is from 2 -13 [because in Judaism, that is the age of bar mitzvah when a child is declared a man].

[Tom Robinson]

Re: Died as Infant vs Died as Child

I use the GEDCOM standard:

child = age < 8 years
infant = age < 1 year

http://www.math.clemson.edu/~simms/genealogy/ll/gedcom55.pdf

Cheers

[TeriPettit]

Re: Died as Infant vs Died as Child

OK, I guess I'm doing pretty much the same thing. Not totally consistent, but treating "infant" as somewhere around 16 months or less. Two is always flagged as a child, under 1 is always flagged as an infant, but in the 17 to 18 month range I'm sure there are children with either flag on.

I was just wondering if it was more standard to treat "Died as infant" as meaning very early infancy, like a month or six weeks, like used to be common to delay christenings and namings until the child was "out of danger". It appears, at least from our somewhat limited sample here, that that isn't the case.

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Died as Infant vs Died as Child

The same as Dennis.

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Died as Infant vs Died as Child

What age do you use as the cutoff for saying that someone died as an infant versus a child?

I go with etymology; Latin = infans = incapable of speech, so I use a cut-off of about 1 year for infant. Anything above 2 years I call child. I am inconsistent enough that between 1 year and 2 years I round up or down, so I suppose that makes my actual cut off 18 months.

[TeriPettit]

What age do you use as the cutoff for saying that someone died as an infant versus a child?

I realize it's a matter of personal preference; I'm just trying to get a feel for the majority convention.