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Back in the 40's you could have life insurance on penny policys .
That penny a week on the individual paid for their funeral.
Among the docs I found was my GM's death certificate (Bowel caner)
signed by D V Salkeld and the receipt for GM's funeral £2-10--6 CWS
for a hearse and following car and death notification in local newspaper
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maggie .................
you asked a couple of days ago .............
"So why were we brought up to believe the Victorians etc were so 'upright'?"
What I read somewhere, and believe it to be accurate, is that the "uprightness" seeped down from Victoria and Albert who were the "upright moral couple" of the time.
BUT it only seeped down in its entirety to the middle and upper middle classes to any great degree. They became the ones who protected their daughters ......... or tried to; who shielded table legs, etc etc.
These were the shopkeepers, small business owners. Daughters of course were not always safe from handsome and/or predatory tutors, piano teachers, etc, but would be married off or sent elsewhere.
The upper classes still behaved much as they had before .......... with daughters who got pregnant being hurriedly married off or taken on the Grand Tour by Mama before returning home either with Mama having a new baby, or having had the child adopted overseas. Wives produced the heir plus a spare then many of them took lovers ..... after all their husbands did!
The "lower" classes, the ag labs, mill workers, shop workers, all still got pregnant, as they had before, especially around May Day and harvest festival when the villagers would be partying. Disappearing into the woods was winked at.
Sometimes the girls married the father of the child/ren, other times not. It seems that many of the parents would accept a son marrying a pregnant girl or one who had 1 or 2 illegitimate children ........... after all, that showed she was fecund, and would produce more children to help look after the old ones in the family. An illegitimate child often seems to have just been accepted into the family, and the grandparents would look after it.
One of my maternal great-aunts looked after the 3 (at least) illegitimate children of one of he youngest daughters, while the girl seemingly went to work in the mill ....... at least that 2 censuses call her "cotton mill worker". Gt aunt was honest on those same censuses. I found it rather amusing that the daughter had the middle name of "love"!!!
OH's ancestors show another variant ......... one that was explained to me by the descendant of one of OH's gt gt uncles.
The joint ancestors were yeomen corn millers and farmers in the area where Lancashire/Westmorland/Yorkshire all meet. They never seemingly owned any property but were well-regarded and reasonably wealthy. The family is still tenant farming in the area.
My informant pointed out that OH's gt gt grandmother was "only" 5 months pregnant when she got married. Many of her line going back and coming forward were so advanced in pregnancy that some had the midwife waiting at the door "just in case".
This was seemingly accepted ......... maybe a version of the bride being proved fecund, or an acceptance of the Scottish "bundling" while courting.
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