Public Death Records

it does not list a cause of death..He was only 48 so when can assume it wasn’t from old age..

Any budding genologists have any idea why a cause of death wouldn’t be recorded..His wife died during childbirth 3 years earlier, she apparently had twins and the boy died 15 days later..

Best Answer: Death certificates were not common in 1863 and those that did exist varied widely in the information they asked for. When there was a death certificate, it was more often filled out by a civil clerk based on information from a family member, and not by a physician. If there is a space for cuase of death and it is unfilled, it may be that the family member who reported the death did not know the cause or was not present when the certificate was filled out.
Statistics that show the average lifespan of people in the 1800s are misleading. People who survived childhood lived to be as old as people do today. The lower average lifespan was brought down by the high rate of infant and child mortality. Even in 1863, 48 would be considered a young age to die.

• In the burial records they usally list the cause of death. Also if there are any newspaper reports from around that time and in that area, it may have more information for you.
• 1863 was the middle of the American Civil War. In some battles there were 15 to 20 thousand men killed in a single day. If he was killed in action you’re lucky there is a death certificate at all. Many a man was interred right where he lay.
• I have a great grandfather born in 1743 who lived to 83 years old and only one after that did not make 70, he died in 1860 in Somerset of consumption. A lot of people did in those times.
  However as a few have said before the average age was worked taking into account of the child deaths of which there were many.
  My brother died a few years ago at 60 and he was only the second male in my family to die before 70 years old since the early 1700’s. They did live in rural Somerset and things were different in the industrial areas where people did not live as well.
  By the way death certificates were common in the UK in the 1800’s
• 48 back then is pretty old. Most people lived til 50 or so if they were lucky, the hygiene and medical knowlegde wasn’t anywhere near as good as now. So it probably was just that he was sick and died.
• I have no idea about the cause of death not being recorded, but I would like to suggest that the reason that the average life span in the 1800s is recorded as 45 is not because people necessarily lived to be only 50, but because infant and child mortality was so high… there is documentation to show that there were masses of folks who lived to ripe old age… just that there were lots of babies (and women in child-birth) who died prematurely… and they took an average. Kind of blows the myths out of the water about us living so much longer.
• Have you tried www.genes reunited .co.uk OR www.Ancestry.co.uk. I have found a wealth of information on these sites. Good Luck
• I read somewhere that in 1906 or something…The life expectancy of people was 45. So in 1863 it was probably less.

  Maybe that’s why there wasn’t a cause of death recorded…Might be wrong though.

• There are multiple reasons why a cause of death wasn’t listed. In that time period, the cause of death was not deemed important like it is today. Death certificates were not common, and with the 1863 date he could have been a war casualty, died in a prison camp, met with a hunting accident, buggy accident, horse riding accident, or simply gotten sick. Many things that caused death in 1863 are curable today. If you have the death certificate, then you should know where he died – some research into what was happening there at the time could shed some light on this for you (for instance if there was a flu epidemic, or a major civil war battle, you could assume that these occurences led to his death). Another possiblity is that he committed suicide, which was considered a sin in those times by most, and would not have been recorded due to the shame involved.

  Sorry I couldn’t directly answer, but hopefully I have given you a couple of avenues to check out.

• Since 1837 it’s been law that there must be a fully completed death certificate for all deaths. The only exception is military death certificates, and you’d know if you had one of those.

  If the reason for the death is missing it’s most probably an error made by the admin clerk at the time.

  I’d suggest two possible course of action. Talk to the people that sent you the cert and query whether they’ve sent you a correctly printed version. The Family Records Office in London have been known to occasionally send out a duff copy certificates where the data hasn’t fully copied over properly.

  If that doesn’t bring resolution talk to the Public Records office in the area your relative died. If there was any unusual local convention at the time (such as refusing the mark the certificate if someone died of an STD) they’ll know about it.

  Other than that it was just a case of a lacklustre clerk not bothering to do his job properly. Nothing changes…

  Good luck & Happy Christmas x

• Can only think that perhaps a cause of death wasn’t easy to establish, maybe they ere going to establish it at an inquest, and it just never got wrote in….perhaps check local newspapers round the date in case anything crops up
• dying from old age was common at that time even he only 48
• check the county seat where the death occurred. they may have a record of it if it is important to you.
• In 1837 a new law came into force which meant that every life event had to be recorded, this was the year when certification began. Your ancestors cause of death had to be recorded, did you check with the issuing office that the clerk hadn’t just missed the cause of death out by mistake. I have just checked a reference book that I have regarding the omission of the cause of death, and it states that it is the registrar’s duty to record and document all of the relevant information, on the death certificate, including cause of death. It should be on there regardless of his age or where he lived or how wealthy he was.. Hope thats helped a little, I would check with the issuing office. Good luck.
• Could he have gotten killed in the Civil War?

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