Burying the Dead

Looking along the branches to Isabella's siblings today, I found out that two of the children of Mary & Abel died very young.

Abel (the son), who was baptized October 31st, 1841 appeared on the St.George's burials list on October 10th, 1843, aged 2.   And William John Abel, baptized August 24th, 1856 was buried December 16th 1857, aged 17 months.

Poor old Mary had been popping out sprogs from 1839 to 1859, and lost at least these two.

It was fascinating to look through the St. George's burials lists and see such entries as:  "A man unknown found drowned, washed up Chesil Beach"; or, the body of an infant "brought ashore from HMS Palmillon"; or "Thirteen males cast on beach drowned", and two days later, "Five bodies of males cast on this beach".  The latter two entries were obviously following a shipwreck.

I wonder how many people ever found out that their sons/husbands/brothers were carefully buried, "unknown", in a Portland cemetery.