Genealogy Chat

Since researching my ancestry I have found a number of rellies who died in early childhood, one or two of which did not even reach their 1st birthday. I know child mortality was quite high in the early 20th century but I would like to find out why these children died. I haven't sent for any of their death certificates yet. Can anyone tell me if a death certificate issued for a young child in the early 20th century gives a cause of death or do they just show a 'blanket' reason for death to spare the parents further upset. Daisy

Hello Daisy I have one dated 1874 for my great aunt who was 4 when she died. It gives scarletina as the cause of death. There is another I need to send off for for a younger child so it will be interesting to see what that shows. I think whooping cough was quite a common cause of infant deaths, but usually the death certificates are quite informative and don't appear to have been terribly sensitive to the surviving relatives feelings. Daisy

Yes I have several of these sad certificates. I just 'had to know'. It always gives a reasonably specific cause of death given the less advanced medicine at the time. Anne

I read recently that when 'life insurence' started it was an advantige to parents to murder their children for financial gain from the pay outs. I don't know when that would come in to effect but with high child mortality it would have been quite eaisy for it to go undetected if the parents just said 'thay had a cought and feaver' no-one would have questioned it.

If you are interested in causes of death this site allows you to view some details recorded in Sheffield. http://www.gencem.org It will give you some ideas of what caused many infant deaths. Just click on 'search' on the main page, then 'first 6000 burials'. Measles, smallpox, whooping cough, flu' and teething seem to be the main causes. Quite a sad site but there are a few amusing causes.

My mother`s brother died when he was 3-she always told me he had TB MENINGITIS but when I got death cert it said GLIOMA OF CERREBELUM which is a brain tumour.This was in 1930`s -maybe they didn`t want to talk about cancer then. Rosalyn

I wasn't sure whether the particular Mary Ellen who died in 1878 was actually a sister to my grandfather as the father was deceased before the date of her birth, so I sent for the certificate to be sure - she was, and the cause of death was Marasmus. I had to look it up but it boils down to malnutrition - the poor mother obviously couldn't provide enough. My grandfather was luckier. Sad isn't it?

Thanks for the replies everyone. Your responses have helped me a great deal. I will be obtaining the certificates. I too 'just have to know' no matter how sad the truth is. Daisy

We tend to forget that becuse of the lack of vacsines thing we consider a mild common child illness were killers back in the 1800s and there of couses were the things we are only just finding out about today Cot death genetic problems, lukimea and dozens of others. And to top all that lack of hygiene and poor living conditions did not help.

I have the certs for 2 children who all died under the age of 3 of measles. As Peter says, makes you realise just how fortunate we are to live in the days of vaccinations Lou

I have 2 death certs of children one died at 3 months stomach infection and the other at 2yrs Whooping cough Linda

Thanks for the cemetery site Helen, so sad, but as you say some amusing reasons for death - seems to be a lot of water in the brain. But my favourite is 'visitation of God' - do you think that's another way of saying 'don't know' Cheryl

In the other branch of my Dad's side of the tree I saw the grave of one of the families. Six children died before their 8th birthday and the one surviving child was killed in action at the very end of WW1. Very sad. Daisy

Cheryl We had a thread on this AGES ago. Turns out visitation from God was what is now known as natural causes. The person's mortal life was over and God had come to take them to heaven. So...yep, probably another way of saying 'Not a clue'! Lou

I've found with death certs I have that the earlier ones tend to be rather vague and say things like 'syncope' - literally fainting - to mean they dropped dead. By the time you get well into the 20th century death certs tend to have at least 3 medical conditions per death cert. I have some infant deaths - my gt grandmother apparently had 9 pregnancies (of course I can't prove this, but it's what I've been told). She had 6 children and 3 survived into adulthood. Two children died aged 2 and one at only 5 weeks. It was very sad when I thought 'oh, she had just had my grandmother when that little boy died' or 'she was just pregnant with her 5th child when the 4th one died'. They died of horrid conditions caused by poverty and malnutrition, things I'd never heard of till I saw the certs. nell

water on the brian. those children were likely to have spina bifida.

In 5 genarations of one branch of my family evey child but one died befor 3 in each genartion and that was roughly 15 children in totel.