Reason on Death Certificate

Oh dear, what tragic tales, it makes me realise how lucky I am ??

What a sad tale. Poor baby. It does sound like SIDS/Cot death. A friend lost her baby that way in the early 80’s. She fed him about 7:30am, put him back down for a sleep and he was gone when she went into his room at about 9:30.

Marydoll silent pneumonia does exist, although it probably has a proper clinical name. My medic dd has seen it in wards she’s worked on. It’s when the patient appears to be doing well and has no symptoms of pneumonia but suddenly collapses and dies.

I doubt it was pyloric stenosis, which my son had and was successfully operated on at three weeks, when he had lost too much weight. The worrying thing was that it was not projectile, so hard to notice.
The OP states that the baby was sitting up and looking healthy at about 8 months. This would not be the case with pyloric stenosis. The wasting away would have finished him off well before that.

My cousin died at six months, she was born after her father was killed in a pit accident. Her death in 1966 was registered, as far as I know, as silent pneumonia. I have never heard of that term since.
My aunt put her in her cot, seemingly healthy, then found her dead later. Such a tragic tale.

I think Yammy may have hit the nail on the head.
I don't know, but would imagine that a PM would have been carried out on a baby in the case of an unexplained death - i.e. where the child hadn't been under the doctor's care for an illness likely to have lead to the death.

M0nica

I think it would be SIDS, which I do not think had a name then nor was there any idea of its cause. If the child had died of pneumonia, that would be on the death certificate.

'natural causes' usually means: that the subsequent post mortem was unable to identify a cause for the death.

Nowadays, it is so much easier through tests of body fluids, and organs to find the cause of death and the phrase 'natural causes' is much less common.

I wonder, would they perform a post mortem on a baby in the 1950s?
My friend’s nephew died of SIDS in 1970s, but I don’t remember any mention of PM, just that it was a ‘cot death’.

Thanks again GSM, It seems the baby’s father was the informant but it doesn’t state if he was present. I can’t even find the poor little chaps birth certificate. I’ve searched the internet high and low looking on every website possible ?

You could be correct Yammy, both my children suffered from projectile vomiting so it may run in the family.?

Germanshepherdsmum

‘Senile decay’ was the cause of death of one of my ancestors in the early 1900s. Old age sounds kinder.

Not quite as bad as one I have,' After falling downstairs inebriated. A bleed on the brain or back injury? Which hopefully would be investigated today. I also have one that says smallpox long after inoculation had been offered to all. At first, I thought maybe a sailor but he was a Haematite miner.

It could have been Pyloric stenosis only recognised and operated on by a few large hospitals in the 50s. Today it is the second most common operation performed on young babies.
A relation lost a young baby to this in the 50s. The baby projectile vomits and if not treated gets dehydrated and eventually wastes away without anyone knowing what was really wrong. The baby I know of was operated on eventually in Manchester but it was too late. The death certificate says natural causes I've seen it.

What you suggest is certainly possible. What WhenIwasyourage says above about the Scottish system is interesting (thanks W, I didn’t know that). Personally I think I would interrogate that death certificate a little more before moving on - who registered the death and do they say they were present? If the little one was ill you would expect the mother or another close relative to be present as the death occurred at home.

That's just what I thought GSM but then maybe he was teething they'd had a restless night and she put him back down for a nap at 7.00am went to check on him at 7.45am and found he'd died. Am I just making excuses? I don't know but my imagination is running wild at the moment. I think I have to let it go now and move on to another family member.

I wonder if it was something other than SIDS then, unless that was the time the baby was found dead, though a bit late to be checking on a little one who hadn’t made a noise I would have thought. So sad. Yes we do find lots of sad things when researching our family history, but we can keep their memory alive.

Sorry Germansheperdsmum, I forgot to say that the baby died at home at 7.45am.

Thanks Germansheperdsmum, On the original Birth Certificate there is a line through Cause of Death. I have found a copy of a Registration of Corrected Entries dated a month later which says that the cause of death was Natural Causes. I googled what that register was for and it seems that is carried out in cases of accidental, sudden or suspicious death where the reason may not have been established at the time. Thanks to everyone for your comments and help. Your stories are all very sad but I suppose when doing a family tree we are bound to find some sad and some happy things. I know for sure I won’t find that I’m related to the Queen like that very intelligent lady on The Chase!!!

Got that wrong way round, the ‘from’ and ‘of’, but still like the sound of it.

”The visitation from God of natural causes”

That sounds rather lovely and peaceful.

My cousin died at 9 months of natural causes,he was put down for the night and didn't wake up. Now would be SIDS.That was 1942 ,his father was at war and didn't see him at all.My aunt had a photograph printed to include his dad in it ,he looked a lovely healthy baby boy ,so sad .

If the baby died in Scotland, Germanshepherdsmum, there wouldn't have been an inquest. We don't have coroners and inquests here (in spite of errors in the works of some of our own writers - yes, looking at you, Chris Brookmyre). An unexplained death would be referred to the Procurator Fiscal, who will decide whether a postmortem or an enquiry needs to take place, or whether s/he can allow the doctor to issue a death certificate. If a postmortem takes place, the pathologist can sign the certificate. I'm assuming that the system was the same in the 1950s, but am prepared to be corrected.

Could the death have been due to a sudden overwhelming infection, like meningitis for instance?

‘Senile decay’ was the cause of death of one of my ancestors in the early 1900s. Old age sounds kinder.

My grandmother died in 1997 at home age 90. Certificated by the local GP, he gave cause of death as "old age".

Recently, I acquired a death certificate from 1845 where the cause of death given by the coroner was "The visitation of God from natural causes". At first I thought this was simply a phrase used by a poetical, Christian man but later discovered this was a commonly used description when the death was inexplicable. It was thought that God had decided that it was time for the person to die.

It wasn’t until 1869 that the Royal College of Physicians published guidance called the Nomenclature of Disease which was issued to every doctor in the United Kingdom. It was an attempt to create a common standard of classification to the various causes of death, and doctors were urged to use the guide when completing a death certificate.

If no specific cause of death was given, the Registrar would be likely to return the certificate requesting the doctor to make a better diagnosis. Despite this, later legislation, and the advancement of medical knowledge, Visitation of God can still be found on the occasional death certificate up until 1900.

Off topic but may be useful to other family historians who encounter this phrase.

That must have been very difficult Biscuitmuncher. ?

My dad died 20 years ago and they couldn't find what was wrong with him and his death certificate says natural causes

Does the death certificate indicate whether an inquest was held Supergranuation? Also, whether the death took place at home or in hospital, and who the informant was and their qualification, e.g. present at the death? All these things help to build up a picture and, if an inquest was held, it may have been reported in the local paper and give you a lot of detail. If the death certificate indicates that there was a post mortem, you may be able to obtain a copy of the pathologist's notes from the hospital - I did this in respect of my grandfather who died in 1930. Grim reading.

I think it would be SIDS, which I do not think had a name then nor was there any idea of its cause. If the child had died of pneumonia, that would be on the death certificate.

'natural causes' usually means: that the subsequent post mortem was unable to identify a cause for the death.

Nowadays, it is so much easier through tests of body fluids, and organs to find the cause of death and the phrase 'natural causes' is much less common.