Genealogy Chat

Andrew I appreciate the apology as I might have not made my question clear from the outset. It was the () that i was querying about not the Haemorrhage

hiya'll, doctor did certify death, but like tracy said i think this one, is just gonna have to remain a mystery, as to what happened, but i think OC is on right track, seems most likely thing to have happened Julie

Your probably right OC. such a shame i only found out about this a few weeks ago. he would have been my uncle. he wasn't even named. My Dad doesn't even know why or how (I'm searching for my Dad) Just updated that as it didn't read right

Quite so. I have a number of death certs from 1940 that just give the cause of death as 'Due to war operations'; no certifying doctor, no (a, b, c) or (i, ii, iii) or anything. I assume a lot of the usual procedures were waived during the blitz. Andrew.

1940...war on...no-one would be all that bothered about why a newborn baby died (except the poor mother of course). OC

hiya andrew, it was 1940, is why it made me wonder cheers all for input, it has helped Tracy alot i think Julie

Thanks it was nov 1940 so will just accept what info I have. but as I said was the (a) or (II) that I couldn't understand.

Hi Julie, As Olde Crone says, a torn placenta could well account for it. A modern death cert would probably give more info but if this was 1913-4 I doubt if you would find out more unless there was an inquest. Andrew.

He was 3 hours old. How depressing for a saturday night sorry.

hiya, yes andrew, u gottit in one, or should that be (i)???LOL but what type of haemorrhage could affect a baby? only 3 hrs old, surley if it was cerebral it would've said?, just think it was odd just to put haemorrhage and nowt else Julie

the only reason i asked was because there is definately a (a) or (ii) and i hadn't seen it before. And it looks more like (ii) than (a)

Did the baby die at or near birth? In which case it could have been a torn placenta which caused the baby to haemmhorage, especially if the mother was not being attended at the birth. Placenta praevia would also cause a fatal haemmhorage in a newborn baby. OC

So you're saying that there's only one cause of death listed, and it's either (ii) or (a), but you can't tell? In that case, regard it as the primary cause of death and don't worry about secondary causes. Registrars can make mistakes, particularly over such trivialities as the difference between (ii) and (a). Come to think of it, (ii) implies that there should be a (i), and if there isn't, it's probably meant to be (a). Andrew.

Thanks the last replies make more sense as i know it was a full term baby Grandma got married nov 1913 i knew she didn't get pregnant til 3 months later. so it wasn't a prem baby, was just curious as to what the ( ) meant.

hiya, i have seen the cert, it definately is either (a) or (ii) and just haemorrhage, absolutly nothing else, which is what puzzled me, like u say if there are secondary causes you'd expect then too be listed too, but there is nothing Julie

Sorry, I didn't notice the distinction between (a, b) etc. and (i, ii) etc. in your original post. As I understand it, the difference is that (i, ii, iii) etc. give the immediate causes of death, where (a, b, c) etc. give secondary causes. These days you get (1, 2, 3) listed instead of (i, ii, iii). For instance, I've seen a death cert which gave the cause of death as (1) Multiple Injuries; (a) Fallen from a train. In other words, it was the multiple injuries that caused the death (immediate cause) but the fall from the train which caused the injuries (secondary cause). Hope this helps. Andrew.

If there are a)s or i)s it means that other causes of death are listed too, they are numbered or alphabeticised to tell them apart. A haemorrhage is an uncontrollable bleed. nell

hiya, what tracy means is the two things on cert before haemorrhage, is either (ii) or (a) The mother actually lived, but doesnt give anyother info except Haemorrhage for the childs death, was only 3 hours old, bless it, hope this helps to clarify thank you Julie

There are many types of haemorrhage. It depends on where the bleed is. i.e Brain haemorrhage in common simple terms a stroke. If you cut yourself even slightly you heamorrhage. It relly depends whether there is any other info on the certificate to give a clue.

Well, it's sometimes specified where the blood loss came from (brain haemmorhage, lung haemmorhage, stomach haemmorhage etc.), but otherwise I'm not aware of any difference. Andrew.