Daily AncestorDecode an old cause of death
Find one death record, mortality schedule or burial entry for an ancestor and look up the cause of death in today's terms.
Old disease names can tell you about family health, local epidemics and even the season someone died, but only once you know what the words meant then.
Your steps this week
- Find a cause of death in a death certificate, a mortality schedule, a church burial book or a newspaper notice.
- Copy the words exactly, including spellings such as 'consumtion'.
- Look the term up and note both the old meaning and what it most likely means today.
- Check whether other family members died of the same cause around the same time.
- Print the cheat sheet for your society's next meeting if you find it useful.