help reading a death certificate

[Carrie Meerten]

Help needed please for decifiering a couple of things on a 1860 death certificate. http://people.smartchat.net.au/~meerten/Help%20Required/Help%20Required_files/certhelp01.GIF

Column 1 - when and where died
its the where died that I need help with
Column 6 - cause of death
Visitation of God !!!!!! what does this mean - is this really a cause of death?
Column 7 - signature, description and residence of informant
cannot understand or read all this bit plus what does it mean?

[susan-w]

Not sure I can help with the rest, but the informant is

"Information received from Hy Tremenheere Johns Coroner for the hundred of Cranborne Ringwood Inquest held 13th September 1860"

So there might be a newspaper report, too.

[Geoffers]

Help needed please for decifiering a couple of things on a 1860 death certificate. Column 1 - when and where diedits the where died that I need help with

Focus is a bit fuzzy and I don't know the area well. The part I can read is "Clap Gate in the (Tithi?)ry of Petersham


Column 6 - cause of death
Visitation of God !!!!!! what does this mean - is this really a cause of death?

Cause unknown, but often old age. This reads to me like someone who was found dead in a rural area.


Column 7 - signature, description and residence of informant cannot understand or read all this bit plus what does it mean?"Information received from Hy Tre.....? Johns . Coroner for the Hundred of Cranborne Ringwood. Inquest held."

Because the cause of death could not be ascertained, an inquest was held to try and determine this and if there were any suspicious circumstances.

Geoffers.

[Ladkyis]

I read it as

when and where died
In the Tything of Petershaw

Informant

Information received from HY Tremenheere John? Coroner for the hundred of Cranborne Ringwood. Inquest held 13 Sept 1860

If this was mine I would be looking for the local Hampshire newspaper for the Ringwood area in 1860 and searching for the inquest reports for September. I doubt very much whether the Coroner's reports will have survived but they would probably be in Hampshire Record Office in Winchester.

Ann

[Carrie Meerten]

thankyou for your help. will look into the newspaper side of things.
still dont know about the cause of death yet - visititation from god !!!!

[susan-w]

I would guess it was death by natural causes, but the coroner didn’t know what the cause was.

See http://
home.vicnet.net.au/~adhs/176Nov99.html

[Carrie Meerten]

This is what he has written for 'Visitation from God' - Probably means Old Age (http://www.paul_smith.doctors.org.uk/o.htm#oldage) or natural causes. It had been said that death from Visitation of God might imply a punishment from God of someone who was sinful, but it could also mean someone who was blessed by God because they were spared from enduring a distressing illness or they were rewarded for their virtuous life by admission the heaven. I think it means natural causes.

[Carrie Meerten]

It then goes on to say about 'Old Age' - In this modern scientific age, some people think that someone who dies must have suffered with a disease that lead to their death

Many death certificates give an imprecise "diagnosis" (myocardial degeneration, morbus cordis, multiple organ failure etc) as the attending doctor felt obliged to conform to this view
I feel that some elderly people do, in fact, die of old age
The registrars in the UK are happy to accept old age as a cause of death
The use of the term old age or any of its euphemisms does not indicate that the attending doctor did not know the cause of death. Rather he (or she) was being honest

Sometimes, a doctor may strongly suspect that, on the basis of the history and examination findings, a certain disease was the cause of death, but the patient was too frail to be subjected to investigations to confirm the suspected diagnosis

[roxyw]

I am replying to a thread from 2005. Henry Tremenheere Johns was my ancestor