Was your village protected by a wall or moat? If not it is likely that your presence attracted mobs that killed your villagers over time.
Are you in peaceful mode? If so switch to a different difficulty.
Has to be related to the hot fix they just sent out.
This is interesting. You seem to have found a work around to the problem. But without WiFi I can’t play on realms. So there is something to this with the hotfix break