Surname Saturday - Cassingham / Casingham

On this beautiful fall Surname Saturday morning I will highlight our Cassingham line.

Albert Odian (Frank) Cassingham married Emma Warburton on 12 June 1875 in Providence, Rhode Island, and later moved to  Middleboro, Massachusetts where Frank was last recorded in 1892 as an employee at Star Mills.  We have not located a death or burial record for A.O. Frank Cassingham but believe it to be between 1892 & 1895 when Emma Warburton Cassingham is recorded as marrying John K. Smith.

Albert Odian Cassingham was born c. 1840 in Aldington, Ashford, Kent, England - the son of Odian Cassingham and Harriet Dean.
 
His father, Odian Cassingham, was born 23 Apr 1807 in Woodchurch, Kent, England - the son of John Casingham and Ann Barber.

John Casingham was baptised 7 Apr 1775  Presbyterian, Tenterton, Kent, England and was the son of John Casingham (born c. Apr 1737) and Alice Sampson.

Our line ends with the parents of John Casingham :  Thomas Casingham and Katherine Ordian married in Saint Mary Bredin (pictured on right), Canterbury, Kent, England, on Aug 3rd, 1731.

Cause of Death: Phthisis

Harriet Dean, born 12 July 1806 in Appledore, England;

daughter of James Dean & Sarah Hinty.

Married Odian Cassingham on 25 April 1839 in Tenterden, Kent, England.

Died 7 July 1860 in Ashford, Kent, England.

Cause of death: phthisis.

......

Phthisis: Greek word meaning "a dwindling or wasting away"

(Pronounced TIE-sis): A wasting or consumption of the tissues.

The term was formerly applied to many wasting diseases, but is now usually restricted to pulmonary phthisis or consumption. In 460 BC Hippocrates identified phthisis as the most widespread disease of his day and observed that it was almost always fatal.

Phthisis and consumption are archaic names for tuberculosis (TB). A person afflicted with tuberculosis in the old days was destined to dwindle and waste away like the heroine of Puccini's 1896 opera "La Boheme." In other words, the afflicted appeared to be consumed by the disease.
Other old TB terms include the King's evil or scrofula (TB of the lymph nodes in the neck) and Pott's disease (TB of the spine).

First isolated in 1882 by the German physician, Robert Koch, TB is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Still present in today’s society, tuberculosis can usually be treated successfully with antibiotics.