Dissecting Death Certificates
For Your Family’s Health History
by: Laura Heidekrueger
Genealogists love a good mystery. Our minds are fine tuned over the years to pick out clues and piece them together. Death certificates are one of those intriguing sources that come in all shapes and sizes and contain a wide variety of information. Lumped together under the heading of a “death certificate” can be a coroner’s report , undertaker’s report , physician or medical report and burial certificates. An index may show a date of death but only the actual certificate will give the clues. Our goal is to pick out clues from these documents for a health history.
The cause of death will not always be well documented, if at all. How reliable will depend on the year, and the informant. Archaic medical conditions and translations of foreign medical terms can be a challenge. Our mindset in genealogy has always been to find and document primary information. In dissecting a death certificate for a health history we need to change out thinking, giving equal credence to secondary or contributing causes of death. A primary cause of death was listed as renal failure and a contributing factor was diabetes. Omitting the diabetes would present a false picture in a genogram and to your physician, making it appear that kidney disease was in the family and no diabetes. Both are vitally important to document. Grandpa died at the ripe old age of 99 years. Secondary factor shows he had adult onset diabetes for the last 30 years of his life. Important? Extremely!
Along with the cause of death, duration/onset is noted. This often overlooked item can be a determining factor in your health history. As in the case of diabetes, duration can be a critical ingredient. Did this ancestor who succumbed at age 60 have diabetes for 5 years or 50 years? Diabetes is diabetes, not so to a physician or qualified health care worker. Juvenile diabetes or adult onset diabetes are very different to your family’s history.
A designated area for the informants name, address and relationship to the deceased can be found on later death certificates. Again, we change our thinking and evaluate the informant providing not the genealogical but the medical information, the person furnishing the cause of death. Judging the creditability of this informant involves two factors , knowledge and opportunity. Did the informant have the knowledge to make a medical judgment? Did they have the opportunity to examine or care for the deceased prior to their death, or were they relying on a history given them by the family? Examining the forms of death certificates can aid in this process.
An Undertaker’s Report of Death will generally have two parts. The undertaker’s section and the physician’s section. As populations grew it became necessary for some type of governing by local health departments. Immigrants poured into cities, no healthcare, poor sanitation and living conditions fostered disease. The health departments worked to prevent spread of contagious disease and improve healthcare. The undertaker had to present some form of documentation of the death before a burial permit was issued. Without a burial permit, a cemetery could not intern the deceased. This section contains the vital information. The physician’s section contains the cause of death and duration. Many times, as in the case of immigrant children, the duration of the disease will be a few hours. No mention of the physician actually treating the decedent. There is no way to tell if the undertaker was called first, the physician or what the circumstances were. They contain highly questionable information. Most c
ontain a diagnosis made by a physician, with adequate medical knowledge of the times. However, no contact with the deceased prior to death. The cause was based on a description of the symptoms by the family.
Another form of certificate is a Coroners Report Of Death. Found in cases of suspicious, accidental, or violent deaths. An investigation into the circumstances of the death or inquest was normally held. This does not mean that an ancestor was a victom of foul play. Most often the coroner rules death by natural causes. Undiagnosed heart conditions leading to premature deaths would be a reason for a coroner to investigate. Copies of the inquest report can be requested most often at the county level. Witnesses testimony, vital statistics and even life style may be documented in these cases.
A small box found on all modern certificates asks if an autopsy was performed. If checked yes, they can be critical in medical information they contain. These autopsy reports can be requested from the coroner or medical examiner. Where to get these reports need further research in each state or county. Graphic in content, a family member may not want to read them. They can be requested to go directly to your family physician.
Our modern death certificate or physicians certificate have evolved over the years from no facts to ones that detail even military service. Cause of death, duration, how long the physician treated the person and statistical data are documented. However, even these can provide false and misleading information. It is still important to judge the data by the same standards as the older ones. As an example I use the case of my own grandmother, who died in 1989. My aunt was the informant. I requested a copy of the certificate for my records. What I received left me speechless! Her name was spelled wrong, her mother and father were unknown, date of birth was incorrect and her occupation was a stated as a factory worker! She was 97 when she died and had never worked in a factory.
I questioned my aunt who said “ Your to picky, who cares about that stuff?” Since then I have found that a death certificate cannot be changed. The information stays for all future generations.
This information is provided by Chicago Genealogy and Family History Research Services, active
Genealogy researchers for over 14 years.
