Bertie Warren was the first child of Charles and Hannah Warren and the first grandchild of John Olson, the retired Swedish tavern owner. The story handed down to later generations was that a Warren baby had died from being scalded in a bath. Bertie was a toddler rather than a baby. Hannah Warren had given birth to her second child, Leslie Warren, the day before his death. It is possible that an inexperienced amah had given Bertie his bath without testing the temperature. "Sunstroke" may have been given on the death certificate to avoid involvement of the law. Bertie's funeral is recorded on the St. John's Cathedral register for 1900. He is buried in the Colonial Cemetery. His father, Charles Warren converted to the Catholic faith shortly after his death. I found the dates of Bertie's birth and death while scrolling through Patricia Lim's data base of the graves in the Colonial Cemetery on Gwulo. Thank you Patricia and thank you Gwulo!
Sex
Male
Status
Deceased
Comments
Inexperienced amahs
A possible inexperienced amah story was also handed down to later generations in my family; in the 1890s when my great aunt was a baby, the amah dropped her. My great aunt subsequently grew up with a hump on her back.
Another inexperienced amah story in my family is that the young amah needed a bowl to do some cooking, but she took an expensive crystal bowl, poured boiling water into it and the heat cracked the glass, thereby ruining the once expensive crystal glass bowl.