Author Topic: Unusual causes of death  (Read 40575 times)

Offline Greensleeves

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Re: Unusual causes of death
« Reply #9 on: Monday 15 June 09 12:39 BST (UK) »
A poor young chap in my family in the 1700s died when helping to manoeuvre a wagon loaded with two tree trunks into a carpenter's yard.  The trees rolled off and crushed him.
Suffolk: Pearl(e),  Garnham, Southgate, Blo(o)mfield,Grimwood/Grimwade,Josselyn/Gosling
Durham/Yorkshire: Sedgwick/Sidgwick, Shadforth
Ireland: Davis
Norway: Torreson/Torsen/Torrison
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Offline Shertur

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Re: Unusual causes of death
« Reply #10 on: Monday 15 June 09 12:48 BST (UK) »
I feel very sorry for my 3 x gt. grandmother as her first husband died, aged 29 from falling off his horse as a result of "Natural apoplexy from blood clots on the brain".

Her second husband died from "Fracture of 5th cervical vertebra and compression of spinal cord through a fall from his cart".

They were both coachman, as were most of my ancestors.

Christine
Bushnell - Whitchurch Oxon, Reading Berks, Chelsea
Harmes - Ashford Middx, West Molesey Surrey
Newson - Suffolk, London
Thirkettle - Pulham Market Norfolk
Cottington - Lewes Sussex, Chelsea
Andrews - Ashford Middx
Brown - Brighton, London
Bryant - Ashford Surrey
Bullen - Suffolk
Carpenter - London
Chapman - London
Hackett - Egham Surrey
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Pledger - Suffolk/Cambs
Turrell - Staffs/Warks/Northants
Ward - Suffolk

Offline Flickgirl

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Re: Unusual causes of death
« Reply #11 on: Monday 15 June 09 12:55 BST (UK) »
My grandmother had a baby who died aged 4 months of "shock scald to legs and abdomen" - the grim family story is that he fell into a pot of soup that was being cooked over the range at the fireplace  :(  Awful.

Michelle
Leonard/Lennon/Lennan (Lanarkshire, Ireland, Australia) Kelly (Lanarkshire, Stirlingshire, Clackmannanshire) Campbell (Leith, Glasgow, New York, Australia) McMaster (Stirlingshire, Ireland) Cullen (Lanarkshire)

Offline Preraphaelite

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Re: Unusual causes of death
« Reply #12 on: Monday 15 June 09 12:59 BST (UK) »
What a lot of very dramatic exits! And many that are particularly sad. Limited funds have meant that I haven't collected too many death certs, and the ones I have all feature fairly "normal" causes of death (with the exception of the "plum stone" incident, which is just a little odd).

Thank you for sharing everyone, and keep them coming - I don't know about anyone else, but I am finding this absolutely fascinating!  I think I ought to send off for some more death certs for my lot now - heaven knows what I might discover, but I think it'd be difficult to top the being "gored by a bull"!! :o
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Londonderry: Holmes
Surrey (Guildford, Camberwell): Turton
Kent: Mulinder
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Essex: Noakes
Dorset (Canford): Budden, Harvey, White


Offline perth tiger

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Re: Unusual causes of death
« Reply #13 on: Monday 15 June 09 13:16 BST (UK) »
the week before xmas 1881 my greatgrans brother died from rupture of a vessel  of the brain due to suffocation while in mothers arms in bed. there was an inquest and it was accidental death. he was 16 months old and the 7th of 9 children.
my ggrandad on another line had 2 sisters 3 and 8 die within 2 weeks of each other.
perth :) :)
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yorkshire
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Offline charlotteCH

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Re: Unusual causes of death
« Reply #14 on: Monday 15 June 09 13:22 BST (UK) »
Death certs can be full of unexpected info- I don't mean cause of death but who the informant is and their relationship to the deceased... I did some homework - checking last census and then marriage regs-on one cuch that arrived and discovered that the informant was the niece of the deceased- and bingo a whole new family was there.  So keep eyes open.

charlotte

Offline molly90

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Re: Unusual causes of death
« Reply #15 on: Monday 15 June 09 13:46 BST (UK) »
My Uncle worked as a lamp boy on the railway and was killed by an Express Train.  He was 17 at the time and the youngest of seven sons.  He was born in 1902, the same year as his 11month old sister died from Measles.  His mother would have had to bury her only daughter in the June, and give birth to my Uncle in the September.

Molly
Stokes, Derbyshire/Staffordshire UK
Windmill, Staffordshire, uk

Offline spiderboy

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Re: Unusual causes of death
« Reply #16 on: Monday 15 June 09 13:52 BST (UK) »
Not bizarre but reasonably dramatic exits and a reason for obtaining death certificates.
A great great grandfather of mine “died in the sea” in 1888. I was lucky enough to find a report of the inquest in a local paper and it transpired that he was attempting to row to a boat moored in the harbour during a gale. A witness, who had seen him earlier, maybe uncharitably, suggested that he seemed to be unsteady on his feet – mind you it was also reported that they found some beer bottles in the wreckage of the rowing boat. A great great uncle was “found dead in the river” in 1896, again a newspaper report was found. Perhaps significantly at the inquest his widow stated that there were no known cases of suicide in his family.
I’m Researching:
CON: Chegwyn, Trayer.
DEV: Bickle, Chegwyn, Gaskin, Hill, Metter, Perry.
DOR: Butcher, Herridge, King, Pain, Palmer, Passmore.
GLS: Martin, Nelmes, Woodward, Young.
SOM: Major, Nation, Sims.
L&SWRailway: Damen, Young.
Wife Researching:
DOR: Burt, Gent, Watts.
STS: Bailey.
SAL: Dawes.
SCT: Raith, Smith, Edwardson. Mollison. Wilson. (MLN & SLI)

Offline Les de B

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Re: Unusual causes of death
« Reply #17 on: Monday 15 June 09 15:11 BST (UK) »
My gg grandfather, Robert MURRAY, drowned in Sydney Harbour in 1822, with two others, when they were rowing to Watsons Bay from Sydney Cove. Its not so much the fact that they drowned, but more so the newspaper report of their demise.

They were reportedly seen to be in "a state of miserable, shocking inebriety" prior to their drowning, and the newspaper concluded "We are unwilling for the sake of those relatives that are now disconsolate, to mention any thing that would have tendency to give additional pangs to the wounded mind; but, we should fail in the performance of public duty, were we not to say, that such repentedly woeful example loudly enjoin a sufficient of reflection to induce persons to abstain from those vices, that are at once so pernicious and so awfully destructive in their consequences."

The newspaper was certainly on its "moral high horse" when it printed this article. There were no Death Certificates for these 3 men as the reporting of deaths was not compulsory until 1856. Only Church Burials were officially recorded pre-1856, however, as their bodies were never recovered, there were also no Church Burial Records either. This meant, the only record of their deaths was this newspaper report, which, when read in its entirity, is much more informantive than any Death Certificate.

Les 

de Belin, Swindail, Willcock, Williams, Moore, Watts, Searjeant, Watson, McCready, Reid, Spink, de Lancey, Van Cortland, and of course, Smith!