Daily AncestorRickets
Rickets was a childhood disease from lack of vitamin D, causing soft, weak bones that bent, with bowed legs and stunted growth.
Vitamin D comes mostly from sunlight and some foods. Children with poor diets and little sun, such as in crowded cities, were at risk, and rickets left them weak and slow to grow.
Rickets itself seldom killed, but rickety children fell more easily to pneumonia and other infections, so the entry often marks a frail child.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Mary Kane, 2, F, W, Feb., Rickets
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Daily Ancestor. "Rickets." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/rickets. Last checked 2026-10-01.