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Mary from Italy
22-10-11, 15:31
Anyone know what "abortive" would have meant in the early 1700's? I know it's another word for miscarriage, but I'm a bit puzzled about an entry I've found in the new Warwickshire records on Ancestry.

Martha and Margaret Russell, twins and abortive daughters of Timothy Russell and Anne his wife was both baptized the twelfth day of Aprill 1709.

The next entry in the register is:

Martha and Margaret Russell the twins next above named was buryed the fourteenth day of April 1709 and certified for.

I originally assumed they were stillborn, although I was surprised to find a baptism, but it seems odd that they would have waited two days to bury them, so maybe they lived for two days.

Any ideas?
Olde Crone
22-10-11, 15:58
Mary

All the entries i have seen for "abortive" infants have been for stillbirths. I wonder if the above entries were written up after the event. In other words, by the time he wrote up the entries, the twins were dead and buried.

I agree, the baptism seems extremely odd though, if they were stillborn. I was under the impression that the church did not baptise stillborn babies.

OC
Nell
22-10-11, 16:34
I can only conjecture that "abortive" perhaps meant they were born prematurely, which might explain them living long enough to be baptised but not surviving.
kiterunner
22-10-11, 17:07
The first definition given in Chambers is "born before due time" so I would agree it meant premature.
Mary from Italy
22-10-11, 20:12
Oh yes, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks very much :)
Olde Crone
23-10-11, 08:24
I tried to get on here to post again last night but couldn't (pooter probs). My COD says "arrested development, not viable" so I think that must mean premature - as we thought - but also I wonder if it meant so badly handicapped it was obvious they would not survive?

As I have only ever seen the term in the BURIAL registers it hadn't occurred to me that it meant anything other than stillborn, so thankyou for this thread, Mary.

OC
Nell
23-10-11, 18:35
Your COD?
Merry
23-10-11, 19:07
Your COD?

Either to do with Fish Fish or OC's Concise Oxford Dictionary :)
Nell
23-10-11, 20:10
Lol!

To think I'd almost forgotten about Fish Fish!
Olde Crone
23-10-11, 20:53
Oh Nell, how COULD you forget? I'm doing Eccles Eccles at the moment.

OC
Georgette
23-10-11, 22:08
I'm doing Eccles Eccles at the moment.

OC

That should be a piece of cake ;) :o
Nell
24-10-11, 12:28
OC - I can't think!

Georgette - very amusing!