Death came as a Surprise

[macwil]

Not sure if this is the correct forum (alternative General Chatter??)

The following came from my GGg'dad's Death Cert. and came as a surprise to me as I was expecting COD to be a heart condition that has killed several of my ancestors at an early age.

Killed by being run over by a passing omnibus and underneath below a line Accident

Has anyone else been surprised by a cOD not being as expected?

[emeltee]

My gt gt grandfather died aged 68. I expected the cause to be an illness or just old age but no. He died of injuries sustained during a fall from the main yard arm of a sailing ship. He was a ship's rigger by trade and still climbing the rigging at 68!
I also have a 4xgt grandfather who was knocked down and killed by a horse and cart in 1858.

Emeltee

[macwil]

My gt gt grandfather died aged 68. .... He died of injuries sustained during a fall from the main yard arm of a sailing ship. He was a ship's rigger by trade and still climbing the rigging at 68! ...

WOW! That was a brave and active man. Climbing rigging was considered a younger man's job, except in an emergency.

[Kiltpin]

A great, great grand uncle of mine (who had never worked a day in his life), died in India at 30 years of age of persistent indolence.

Regards

Kiltpin

[macwil]

[emmteeyess]

On my g.grandma's death cert. in 1896 cause of death is given as'General Paralysis of the Insane' which google tells me is a syndrome of madness and weakness occurring in tertiary syphilis. oh dear.
However, her husband's cod some 6 years later was 'Heart attack' - no mention of him having the syphilis too.

I also have a gg.uncle who was killed down the pit in 1904. The Mine Inspectors Report states 'He had been out of the place to get his "bait" (pitmatic for his food) and on going back a fall of stone took place - 7 yards back from the face - and killed him'.

For we know not the day nor the hour...

MTS

[Megan Roberts]

I have asked Santa for a copy of "How Our Ancestors Died: A Guide for Family Historians" ...

[Allan F Sparrow]

One of my great grandfathers was killed in a major pit explosion in Tylorstown, Glamorgan, in 1896, so his death was officially reported by the coroner at the end of quite a long inquest. The stated cause of death is the most copiously specific I have seen: "Shock and suffocation after an explosion of firedamp caused by Richard Evans firing a shot which ignited gas in Daniel Williams' stall road in No. 8 pit". I suppose the same must have been put on the death certificates of all the other 56 men and boys killed. Richard Evans was one of them. Not nice for his family, but the coroner was only recording what the inquest jury had decided.

[macwil]

I had a similar COD on my great uncle's 1921 death cert., but not as long.
It stated :-
Suffocation from
accidental fall of roof
whilst at work as cutter

Accidental death


He died the day before his 28th birthday.

His younger brother's wife's death cert had three causes of death listed in four lines plus three lines identifying coroner the last of which was:- after post mortem without inquest

[Ladkyis]

My 3x great grandfather was "Feloniously killed and slayed" according to the court records of the trial of his slayers. The death certificate says "effects of blows on his head".

His attackers got six months hard labour