Missing a leg 1820- 1830's

[phenolphthalein]

Does anyone have any experience with finding
how an ancestor came to lose a limb
in the 1820's or 1830's?

He had definitely lost it by 1837
Born about 1813 so probably too young for Napoleonic wars.

Thank you for help
phenolphthalein (who is not the same person as phenol)

[groom]

Any idea of his occupation - was it one where there could have been a risk? It may just have been an accident.

[phenolphthalein]

Thank you.
He was a shoe maker.

phenolphthalein (not the same person as pheno)

[groom]

Not a particularly dangerous job! Have you tried looking for a newspaper report in case it was an accident?

[lizdb]

Unless, as groom has suggested, the cause was some sort of event worthy of a newspaper report, then there probably wont be any surviving record of someone losing a leg. 
If it was just a domestic accident, a "routine" factory accident, or a result of illness , then I dont think there would have been any particular record kept.

[mazi]

I seem to recall a few incidents of people run over by a horse and cart, amputation seemed to be the standard treatment for a crushed limb.

Mike

[Archivos]

If you can narrow down the date even to a couple of years, you might be lucky and find that the local hospital records have survived.  Admission registers might show when he went in, and the nature of the illness.

I've come across people having amputations because of infection, lumps, cancerous growths, and so on, as well as the result of accidents.

[JAKnighton]

There is also the possibility that your ancestor was born without the limb.

[anne_p]

As there were no antibiotics until the mid  20th century, many people had limbs amuptated due to chronic infection.

Penicillin was discovered in 1928 but did not become available until 1942