Virginia "Jennie" Smith, Born 14 Sep 1906 - Died 26 Apr 1916, the daughter of Virginia "Jennie" Shaw Baker Smith

 Two of nine.

I now know what happened to two of the nine children my great grandmother Virginia "Jennie" Shaw Baker Smith gave birth to.

Her first child was Roy Henry Baker, my Grandpa Baker. I want to do a timeline post on him sometime soon that is going to be a challenge!

Roy Henry Baker Born 05 Jul 1888 - Died 08 Dec 1965
Harry E Baker Born in about 1892 - Died after 1900
Edith M Baker Born in about 1894 - Died after 1910
Ella B Baker Born in about 1898 - Died after 1900 She is missing from the 1910 census when she would have been only 12

There was another child that died by 1900, the census says Virginia Baker was the mother of 5, 4 still living. That child might have been between Roy and Harry but more likely between Edith and Mary.

Then along came Mary Baker in 1902 - Died after 1910

A second husband....

Virginia "Jennie" Smith Born 14 Sep 1906 - Died  26 Apr 1916
Charles Smith Born about 1909 - Died after 1920
and finally
Marguritte Smith in about 1912 - Died after 1920

I was looking at different resources to try to find more about what happened to these Grand Aunts and Uncles, hoping to be able to locate some of their descendants, my cousins. I was poking around on Missouri Digital Heritage last night and found young Jennie Smith's Death Certificate. I can cross her off my list to research.

Jennie was a "schoolgirl", age 9 years 7 months 12 days when she died.She was sick with measles for over a week before she was admitted to the Kansas City General Hospital. She died 9 days later of empyema, a complication of measles and lobar pneumonia. If you are curious you can read about empyema here at Healthline and about measles and pneumonia in The Archives of Internal Medicine in 1918.  I can not imagine watching a child die of complications of measles. The antibiotics that could have likely saved her were still over a generation away. Under Place of Burial on her death certificate it looks like Unknown is crossed out and above it Forest Hill is written. It says she was buried on April 28th 1916. I have not been able to confirm her place of burial.

Postcard from 1916

Actual photo from the 1920s

Jennie's siblings, Mary age 14, Charles age 7, and Marguritte age 4,  would have been at home at this time and seem to have escaped her fate. I could not locate any death certificates for them around the time of Jennie's death.

If she had lived she would have been 51 when I was born.