Daily AncestorCoroner
A coroner was the official who held an inquest into sudden, violent or unexplained deaths, often with a jury, to decide how the person died.
The word comes from the same source as crown: in medieval England coroners were Crown officials. The coroner could decide the cause of death himself or preside over a coroner's jury, and might also have to identify an unknown person found dead.
In the United States and Canada the word also came to mean a medical doctor who performs autopsies to fix the time and cause of death.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1940 census
Dr. Simeon Clark, 55, Coroner
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Coroner." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/coroner. Last checked 2026-10-10.