Women's History Month: Young & Tragic Deaths

March is Women's History Month and as such GeneaBloggers' prompt today is: Did you have any female ancestors who died young or from tragic or unexpected circumstances? Describe and how did this affect the family?

My aunt Mary Ethel Still passed when she was just 13.

She was born 04 Jun 1893 to Franklin and Jennie VanHorn Still. Some personal letters addressed from the school to her father, I learned that she attended the Pennsylvania Training School F. M. C. in Elywyn. It was always abbreviated on the letters and envelopes and the correspondence was all financial records or invoices. A Google search revealed FMC stood for Feeble Minded Children. Her sister - my Aunt Helen Still Webster - had told me that she was sent to the home because she took epileptic fits.

She passed away on 15 Dec 1906. Aunt Helen was three when her sister Ethel passed. She described for me once how she was laid out at home, as was the norm then.

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