The tombstone reads: Infant, son of E. (Ebenezer) & L. (Lydia) Haseltine. Died Jan 23, 1862, age 27 days. He is buried in the Haseltine or Fairmont Cemetery, just outside of Waterbury Vermont.
Ebenezer Haseltine and Lydia (Marshall) Haseltine are my 3rd great-grandparents. This infant was their 8th child, born when Lydia was in her 38th year.
I wonder why a baby that lived 27 days wasn’t given a name. I don’t know if it was common practice at the time to not name a baby that was obviously not going to live, and I am assuming that was the case. If the death came as a surprise, he surely would’ve had a name.
Was he born extremely premature? Did he have a birth defect? It must be one of these two things, it’s the only way to explain that he lived almost a month and wasn’t given a name.
Can anyone help me figure out an answer?
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November 17, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Dee Burris Blakley
Maybe the parents were waiting for the christening, or for the circuit riding preacher to make his rounds for a baptism.
I wonder those things myself when I see unnamed newborns in a census.
November 27, 2010 at 1:27 am
Alice Keesey Mecoy
Hello! I enjoy your blog and have awarded you the Ancestor Approved Blogger Award. You may see the write up and collect your icon for the side bar of your blog by visiting my blog at http://johnbrownkin.blogspot.com/2010/11/finally-back-and-found-i-received-2.html