I think some of the baby deaths were due to germs, either bacterial contamination of the milk and food or disease. But when you see a series of babies of the same mother lost right at birth, I agree it may well be the Rh factor.
My husband’s maternal grandparents, born in the Azores and migrated to Providence, RI, had at least a dozen pregnancies, but only three children survived more than a day. I think she had a lot of miscarriages, too. I have wondered about what caused that, and now one of my daughters has the Rh factor, and has to get the shots after each pregnancy. I think she might have inherited this trait from the Portuguese side. PS, she also inherited perfect skin, thick dark wavy hair, and a beautiful smile, so it wasn’t all bad! Eileen Leite From: azores@googlegroups.com [mailto:azores@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of nancy jean baptiste Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 11:43 AM To: azores group Subject: RE: [AZORES-Genealogy] Death Records I think loosing many children in a family was common until not that long ago! I'm the oldest of 6 living children but my Mom had 13 pregnancies.....she also had type A- blood and my Dad was A+ and that was the reason she lost so many.....when I had my first child in 1967 they had just introduced the Rogam serum to eliminate the problem due to the RH factor. I would speculate that many of our ancestors had similar conditions. I have seen also on a website that lists "disasters in the azore islands" that a plague hit more than once. Nancy Jean -- To unsubscribe from this group, send email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership."
