Daily AncestorRupture
Rupture was the everyday word for a hernia, where bowel pushes through a weak spot in the belly wall; it became deadly when the trapped bowel was strangulated.
The word hernia comes from Latin for rupture. Many people lived for years with a rupture held in by a truss, but if a loop of bowel became trapped and lost its blood supply, it needed emergency surgery.
Before safe surgery, a strangulated rupture was often fatal within days. A record of rupture as a cause of death usually means this complication.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Thos. Hale, 58, M, W, Laborer, Oct., Rupture
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Daily Ancestor. "Rupture." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/rupture. Last checked 2026-10-01.