Unusual causes of death

[Geoff-E]

Phlebitis 2 months
Mortification 22 days
Septicaemia 4 hours

 

[Gone]

I came across the court case of a famly member I was reseaching where he was aquitted from court for killing a man that ran out in front of his horse and cart, the cart wheel ran over his head

[Michelle79]

When I started researching I was warned by my aunt that I'd probably get upset when I came across any child deaths and she wasn't wrong.

The first I came across was my GG Grandmother's first child Minnie who was born 28th November 1881, unfortunately she died on the 18th December 1881 at just 3 weeks old.  If that wasn't sad enough when I got the death certificate and found the cause of death I was shocked, it was listed as 'want od breast milk'.  I know that this could have been caused by a number of things, i doubt the child was starved on purpose, plus there was no inquest.

At the time my GG Grandmother was not married but she did go onto marry the father of Minnie on the 26th December 1881 and between 1881 and 1903 had another 13 children, as far as I am aware only 2 more of these died in early childhood, but I haven't traced all of their deaths yet.

The family does seem to have alot of heartache, my GG Grandmother's 3rd child Dinah lived to the age of 26 but died on the 11th March 1911 in childbirth.  I found the newspaper report of the inquest which was held and it stated she died of a heamorage, the midwife that was arranged to attend the birth was ill and could not come and the inquest said that she may have survived if she had had medical attention sooner.  The baby did survive and was named Dinah after her mother.

Not long after on the 24th July 1912 my GG Grandmother lost her second child John Thomas who was 29 years old.  The title of the newspaper report of the inquest was ' 'Died after eating salmon' after reading the whole story it wasn't anything that strange he actually had a stomach ulcer that burst.

I am sure that there will be plenty more interesting but sad deaths in the family, and I look forward to finding them.

Michelle

[steensb]

I recently discovered that my grandfather may have been married before he married my grandmother.  If it was him, he was driving his Model-T with his young bride (18 yrs old).  The car went into an unmarked 12 foot deep pit in the road.  The young woman went through the windshield.  A shard of glass cut her throat and she bled to death.    So tragic.

[BenRalph]

I've got a few that are sad.

My ggg granddad Samuel Sutcliffe committed suicide by drinking laudunum (spelling?). He was depressed about being out of work at around 60 years old. His youngest son and wife found him in bed.

Mark Kirby died in an accident whilst building the railway between Leeds and Thirsk (I think. I'm going from memory with these). He was crushed and died later the same day.

My partner's gg granddad, Martin McNulty, died after a horse and cart ran over his foot, chopping his toes off. I assume he bled to death.

Also her Britton family had 3 brothers go to war and all three dying in 1917. One in Jan, one in Aug and her g granddad in Sept. That must have been horrible for their wives, children and their parents.

[Fisherman]

One of my lot,  Miles Corbet, met his end in a very public way - on the gallows at Tyburn in 1662. His crime, he signed Charles I'd death warrant!

[andrewalston]

Browsing the registers of Daresbury, Cheshire a couple of years ago, I came across a burial entry in 1915:
"Legs of Charles William Roberts taken from canal at Keckwick other portion of Body Buried at Dunham Massey in Altrincham. Late of 2 Dobson St, Warrington"

The person concerned had joined up two months previously, and appeared to be in a disturbed state. He had not returned to barracks after a short leave.

The upper part of his body was found several miles away, where he was not known. An inquest at Dunham Massey gave a verdict of "Found drowned". It was the army boots found two days later which led to his identification.

The inquest jury recorded a verdict of "Found dead" and added that there was no evidence of the date, cause or place of his death, thus sparing the family from the stigma of suicide.

[goldnutmeg]

Oh dear, I even had a newspaper reporter while reporting the inquest concur it was a ‘very peculiar death’.

The family mood - mood because details were scarce - my great grandfather was ‘done in’ financially by some ‘cousins’ and an iron foundry and he ran off to ‘North America’ where he died ignominiously.

My grandfather who was six at the time never spoke of him to us but his wife my Gran had gleaned some of the story. 

The details when I uncovered the paperwork may suggest the mood in the family could have been correct. I was lucky enough to get both newspaper reports and the full papers of a rather dubious inquest. Hence the reporter’s doubts but he obviously had to squash all those when the verdict came in as ‘suicide’.

My ggrandfather seems indeed to have invested in a business venture with cousins and sailed off to Canada where he went to the office of some cousins of cousins, who ran a scrap metal firm, in a supposedly hysterical state where for some reason he left his fob watch in their safe.

He then went back to his lodgings with a tailor and his family. They apparently left him alone for a few minutes and when they came back - he had slashed his throat and cut his wrists.

Oh, yes, and did I mention some of the cousins of cousins were on the inquest jury?

I did trace a descendant of the tailor who was intrigued and astonished - there is no evidence that the tailor and family did anything but give him lodgings and may have been willing to offer him a job so there was no discomfort there!

I showed some of the paperwork separately during social ‘dos’ to an academic historian specialising in emigration and then a professional genealogist. The academic furrowed his brow and said ‘Hmm, something’s not quite right about this ...’. The genealogist put it rather more succinctly, ‘It stinks!’ 1901 was a year of financial crashes but the clincher may have been the final sentence of the first newspaper report of the inquest before the verdict came in, ‘When the police found the body, it was still warm.’

Still, I know exactly where the slashes were on my ggrandfather’s body from the inquest pathology report, although we do feel we are entitled to wonder how he managed to slash his throat with a deep cut and then slash his wrists ...     

[kevinf2349]

May not be classed as unusual but it is certain mystifying. I have a relative who was hit by a train while crossing the tracks. It is strange because the local newspaper at the time have her name wrong and she is listed with a different occupation but I am sure it is the same person.

I know that we are probably more aware of dangers these days but how do you miss a dirty great stream engine coming towards you? 

Kevin