Some family history researchers get to share photos and news stories of their ancestors' great achievements in the distant past, but my family weren't generally that type. Here's what my great-grandparents were up to 110 years ago...
From the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 1st January 1913
NEGLECTFUL MOTHER PUNISHED.
Long continued neglect of children on the part of a Sheffield mother was visited by exemplary punishment in the Sheffield Police Court, before Mr. E. H. Banner and Mr. C. J. Whitehead, when Thomas Millership and Mary Ann Millership of 2, Cross Chantrey Road, were summoned for neglecting five of their children, varying in age from 18 months to 12 years.
The prosecution was brought by the N.S.P.C.C., for which Mr. Arthur Neal appeared. He said that defendant was an engineer's turner, the standard wage being 39s. At the beginning of the year the case was brought to the notice of the society's inspector by one of the lady inspectors of the Corporation. Inspector Carter found the house in a most deplorable state. The children were ragged and dirty, and their bed-clothing was insufficient. One of the bedrooms was more like a cesspool than a living room. On one occasion the woman said she was the daughter of a doctor and had never been brought up to work. The inspector hand made frequent visits to the house, and at times there was some improvement, but in November things went again from bad to worse.
Dr. Black said he found the children in a wretched state. A boy whose age was given as five looked more like a child of three. Doris, aged three, looked more like a child of two, and was in the worst state of all. She was exceedingly filthy, and was rickety through neglect. The youngest, two years of age, was smaller than many children at 12 months.
The male defendant said that he gave his wife 30s. every week, and she was to blame for what had happened.
Mrs. Millership, who appeared with a bandaged eye, said that but for eye trouble and general ill-health this neglect would not have occurred.
The magistrates adjourned the case against Millership to give him an opportunity to reform the home, and sent the woman to prison for three months.
The 12-year-old will be my grandmother - Sheffield Grandma, who died long before I was born, that is. I mean, it's not a cheerful story, but I think it's important to remember these things, as well as the grand accomplishments of other people's progenitors...
