Genealogy Chat

Oh dear! That all sounds really horrible! I almost wish I hadn't asked! Thanks all, anyway.

Even though I've been researching for years and years, I continue to learning something new at least once a week! Rootsweb: Old Medical Terms for use by Genealogists 'Exhaustion - I think means a lingering death. Similarly, syncope is sudden deaths...' http://www*dictionary*net/exhaustion (replace * with .) '...The state of being exhausted or emptied; the state of being deprived of strength or spirits..' And here I thought she just simply died one day. Wonder what really happened.

Exhaustion is commonly listed on my ancestors death certificates as a secondary cause of death, often with cancer, T.B or just advanced age. I think it basically means they had been suffering for quite some time and finally given up the ghost. For example, I've rarely if ever seen it listed with rellies who caught scarlet fever or cholera and died quite quickly.

Hi Karen, exhaustion sometimes means exactly that, i.e. not dying of a peaceful age, quite the opposite. Remember that old age pensions were not common until relatively recently. Old folk had to work their entire lives in order to be able to survive and to avoid the dreaded workhouse. I have one old boy in my tree still working as an ag lab at the age of 88 according to the census - he died of exhaustion a year later. Gary

I have a female ancestor who died of exhaustion - but she had given birth to over a dozen children, so I wasnt really surprised!

Thanks Lisa. I was hoping that was what it meant. If so, that will be the first relative I've ever found who's died peacefully of old age!

Karen, I have a death certificate of a Canadian ancestor from the same time period. It says something like 'Exhaustion due to old age'.

Hi all, I've recently received a death cert that I am pretty sure is my 2xg grandfather. He died in 1903, aged 85, of 'senile decay & exhaustion'! Does exhaustion really mean just that, or is it a technical term for old age or something? I can't imagine a senile 85 year old being capable of doing anything particularly exhausting!