Genealogy Chat

I have a death cert which states that my great great grandad died from acute menigitis, but an inquest was held but no post mortem. Is this because it was an infection disease?? What is the likelihood of a mini article in the paper? when his wife died 3 years earlier, it was in the paper as she fell down the stairs at home. George

They probably died so quickly that a doctor hadn't been involved, so the inquest was just to establish that they'd died of natural causes. (My grandfather collapsed on a train and died of a heart attack. His death certificate also has inquest without post mortem.)

a post mortem is an examination by a pathologist to establish the medical reason for a death. An inquest is used to look at the circumstances surrounding it. presumably in this case the actual cause of death is not in dispute, so there is no need for a post mortem examination. In general, you can have a postmortem without an inquest. you can have an inquest without a postmortem. I will nudge a thread (Postmortems - does anyone know) that may help explain this in more detail

Thanks, it slightly surprised me at the time at an inquest was done for someone who died from menigitis. On the cert it does'nt give the number of days that he was ill, so I presume it was a sudden death.

It didn't say how long he'd been ill, presumably because he hadn't seen a doctor, hence the inquest. 'By 1845 most of the causes of death are followed by the word - certified. Where those words are not found then a doctor did not write a certificate of cause of death. Plenty of families who had sick and dying relatives would not necessarily have called a doctor to see the patient - after all doctors had to be paid. By 1875 the cause of death is followed by 'Certified by..........(name of doctor) ..........(doctors qualifications)' in which case the doctor in attendance on the deceased in his last illness has signed a medical certificate of cause of death. This tends then to be in medical jargon eg myocardial infarction (a layman would have said heart attack) or cerebrovascular accident (stroke). A doctor is only qualified to sign if he has been in attendance on the deceased in his last illness AND has either seen the deceased within 14 days of his death or saw the deceased after death. ******If there is no doctor who qualifies under these restrictions then the death must be notified to the coroner.*****' my ****s. From the excellent website http://home.clara.net/dixons/Certificates/indexbd.htm nell