Fate could be even this cruel...

This is one of the saddest preserved stories of a person with the surname Vachuška. The unfortunate man was Jan Vachuška, born in Sedlo in 1801, who had three wives during his lifetime, waiting 41 long years for the first, and despite fathering three sons, he left no heir to the surname.

At the age of 41, Jan married Marie, born Čapková, who was 16 years younger than him. She gave birth to three children, one of whom was stillborn and another died at the age of two. The sequence of events in 1847 was as follows: Marie gave birth to a stillborn child and died a week after giving birth, and a month later Jan's son František died. Within seven weeks, Jan lost his wife, son, and another child. All that remained from Jan's first marriage was his firstborn daughter, Rosalie, who was three years old at the time.

Only three months had passed since Marie's death when Jan, at the age of 46, married his second wife, Kateřina, born Kroupová, who was 25 years younger than him. He had three children with her, but fate was very cruel to Kateřina during her third delivery as well... Her son František, Kateřina's third child, died four days after birth, and Kateřina died the next day. Jan had already lost his first wife in this way. His second marriage gave Jan two daughters, Marie and Anna.

Diagram of Jan Vachuška's family

At the age of about 53 or older, Jan married Anna, born Krejčová, with whom he had no children. It is not clear from the records how long his marriage to Anna lasted, but we know that it was no longer than 10 years, because Anna died in 1864.

Despite all the blows of fate, Jan lived to see all three of his daughters get married and died at the very grand old age of 88.

Did any of your ancestors suffer such a cruel fate?