Genealogy Chat

Have you come across any strange ones while doing your tree?

I discovered yesterday the cause of death for my GG Gran was 'Exhaustion from mania'. Never come across that one before!

Hi G C Girl,

'Exhaution from mania' -

This would be referring to someone who was suffering from mania, a serious mental disorder where the person is overactive in the extreme, racing about constantly, unable to rest and sometimes not even to drink or eat. They would certainly become exhausted, and ultimately their heart would stop.

So although it does sound strange, without the effective treatments and sedation we have now, in those days many manic patients would have sucumbed in this way.

Bee.

Thanks for that information Bee, interesting.

thats interesting, as we received a death cert yesterday which had cause of death "puerperal mania".
Found that puerperal means post-childbirth, (the child survived in this case) and the death of the mother was a few months later, but I was thinking, post-natal depression etc doesn't usually kill you, but I suppose if she did have a psychotic episode, and as you say, there weren't the sedatives etc, perhaps she could have got in such a state as to cause a heart failure of something.

Pueperal fever was very common before antiseptic conditions were the rule.
Many women died from this until drs. and midwives could be persuaded to wash their hands and use clean instruments and materials. A Dr Semmelweis did an enormous amount to make handwashing etc. the normal practice, I think it was in a hospital in Vienna. Read an interesting book about it many years ago and can't remember the title. So possibly the pueperal mania referred to actually may mean severe bloodpoisoning fever and mind-wandering, not postnatal depresssion, although it could do.
Lets hope those days don't come back with all the mrsa etc.
Eileen

Not so much a strange one, but one which is going to make the men go 'ouch'...
..my g.g.grandfather died of scrotal gangrene.

eeeeeuwwwww.
K

Oh Karen the poor man!

Has anyone found a history of the same or similar cause of death running in the family going way back?

No, although I did discover that three of my grandfather's sisters died of breast cancer, and in another line of the family, all the women died young of childbirth (in their 20s, 30s or early 40s).

Karen, your poor ggg.dad. It is possible that he was suffering from undiagnosed diabetes which could reduce the blood flow to the scrotum thus causing gangrene. I´m not sure when diabetes was first recognized.

Eileen, I´m sure you are right about the pueperal mania. Poor girl. I remember that doctor, (well reading about him!) everyone thought he was crazy washing his hands, but the survival rate of his mothers was amazing. I think he was booted out of practice for doing this.

My Grandmother died shortly after giving birth in 1945 and the baby died a few days later. Wonder if it would be worth getting the death certificates?

i received a cert today for whom i was hoping was grtx 6 grandfather born 1791 died between 1841 and 1851 census.

Was instead for the 2 MONTH old illegitimate son of one of his daughters with the same name as grandad and little mite died of Syphilis!!!


Shirley

just did a search too on the informant to find was the governor of the St Peter Maldon Workhouse. Essex,so poor liitle lad was probably born illegitimate in the workhouse and died there aged two months .going to get the birth cert now as its got a gro ref

How awful Shirley but I believe it was a common cause of death at that time.

GC girl. Be prepared to cry if you do. My baby cert said, death from "pneumonia and severe exhaustion over several weeks". l think about her everytime I see her name on the tree.

Just googled the p.mania. There´s an amazing account written in 1840 about the treatment, symptoms etc. includes, melancholia, restlessness, suspiciousness, appears in 1 out of 4 first births. etc. for treatment they used Aconite (which is poisionous unless in homoeopathic dosages - my words) or Opium which they recommend being given in LARGE DOSES. I bet a few of those poor women were actually poisioned.

I saw one that was a warehouseman that was killed by "falling stuff" !

Philip, stuff often meant "cloth", so he may have been killed by having bales of cloth fall on him.

Thanks for the insight into puerperal mania, I had googled it etc, and found more references to puerperal sepsis which I guess is the more common post-labour infections. I am interested in the article you mention about the actual mania symptoms though. I too wondered if the death was as a result of the "treatment" !

Ill try to find a very old, very long thread on this subject

Mary, yes he was a stuff warehouse boy at a worsted weavers

Have a death cert for grt grandfather who was a London Dock Worker he died in 1907 from"injuries caused by a 9 tonne crane falling on him" died later in hospital

My grtandmother died aged 42 of a ruptured uterus - this was whilst giving birth to her 14th child, who also died. My dad was number 11 in the family, and was 3 when his mum died.