Help with death cert info please

[Liz C]

Hi all,

I've recently received a death certificate where the cause of death was not certified. This is the first time this has happened. All my other ancesters so far have had there cause of death certified - from old age to lymphosarcoma.
Sometimes the doctors name is mentioned & sometimes it isn't.

Can anyone explain why a death wouldn't have been certified. She died of dropsy which I would have thought would have been quite chronic & therefore she would have been under some kind of treatment prior to death.

Many thanks
Liz

Oh & she died in 1861 if that makes any difference.

[Little Nell]

Death Certificate Tutorials

says that by 1845 most deaths were certified, if they weren't it meant the family hadn't called a doctor, probably because of the expense.

The page above also lists some common causes of death and says that Dropsy (which just means water retention and swelling) is a symptom of a different illness rather than a cause in itself. I have it on some certs, but as a secondary cause to some other illness, such as kidney failure, heart disease, etc.

[Liz C]

Many thanks for the link.

I wondered about the expence aspect but the family wasn't poor. Her husband was a miller who owned his business. He left a reasonable amount in his will when he died 6yrs later (& his death from old age was certified).

You would have though she would have been receiving some sort of treatment for the underlying problem - being heart related or kidney. I would have thought she would have experienced other symptoms before the water retention, which I believe is usually more late stage.

Anyway thanks again for your help.
Best wishes
Liz

[Olde Crone Holden]

Liz

Even today people don't go to the doctor especially if they have symptoms which have come on gradually and they have got used to them.

There was very little to be done for dropsy in those days because they did not yet understand the underlying causes, so she would probably have died anyway.

Death certification by a doctor did not become compulsory till 1875.

OC

[Liz C]

Cheers OC,

Sadly that's too true. Even today when medical understanding & survival rates are so much higher, people don't go to the doctor. As you say, at least back then she would have probably died anyway.

Best wishes
Liz

[Little Nell]

She may well have been having "unofficial" treatment, maybe from a neighbour, rather than from a doctor.

People only really used doctors in the old days in cases of dire necessity. My mother remembers pre-NHS days, that calling the doctor was a big thing in their village and generally meant you were at death's door. Doctors were too expensive and too important to bother with what might have been seen as a minor ailment. Today many folk still think heart problems might be something less severe, like indigestion, for example.