Better late than never I decided to participate in the 52 Ancestors Challenge this year. This is the fourth article in “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2015 Edition.”

This week’s theme is “Closest to your birthday,” which is June 21.

Out of the 2139 relatives that I have documented so far in my tree I was only able to find two relatives who shared the same birth date as mine (but it is important to note that there are many relatives who are still missing records to confirm).

Both are female and neither lived to see the age of thirty. I will only be focusing on one of these ladies as she is a closer relation than the second.

Mary Moxam (1877-1900) is my second cousin 3x removed. She was born to Emmanuel Moxam and Ann Johnston on Jun 21, 1877, in Bromley, Renfrew North and was the eldest of eight other siblings. This branch of the Moxam family would remain in the Renfrew area of Ontario until moving out west to Winnipeg in the early 1900s where they settled in Winnipeg.

On Dec 6, 1897, Mary married Arthur Henry McClurg (1870-1943), a blacksmith, and would have two children with him before her early demise. A daughter would be born on Oct 3, 1898, named Annie Margaret McClurg and later a son.

Mary died on Sep 22, 1900, of blood poisoning after three weeks of suffering. As she bore a son on Sep 2, William Emanuel McClurg, I make the safe assumption that the blood poisoning, also called sepsis, was caused from complications of giving birth. This could have been a result from a prolonged or obstructed birth, an infection following delivery, or illnesses during birth such as influenza.

Even today with better standards in health practice it is still possible for women to die of sepsis and it requires early detection and appropriate treatment.