Death certificate handwriting (pic)

[Lemond1fficult]

Hi everyone

I got the death certificate for my g-g-g-grandfather from 1857 and can't read the cause of death, as I don't think it's a familiar condition in today's parlance.

Would love a hand reading it, if anyone's able?

@BogglesGoggles I know, I just meant that in the sense that bullshit death certificates are common practice these days where the cause of death is unclear but also not suspect and presumably this could have been common practice in the past with fe er as a catch all phrase for illness in the past (as in there is a fever going around as opposed to my flu has resulted in a fever).

@XXcstatic see above. Not sure what happened there

I am absolutely convinced the word is fireshower.

@BogglesGoggles Trust me, I'm definitely prepared to believe that doctors broke the rules and took short cuts!

I still think that the '4 months certified' bit points more to an accident or something connected to being a miner, e.g. a lung disease though.

The date of death is 27th May and the date registered is 29th May, and the 4 months certified will be the length of illness as certified by the attending doctor who was there ( not necessarily at the time of death but near it) , but as official witness if you like.

According to sources, cirrhosis of liver among coal miners was a prevalent autoimmune disease, and too common. I believe it came in second to respiratory diseases from the mines as well. Remember the song sung by The Police, "Canary In A Coal Mine".
It was completely toxic and what they breathed collected in the liver as it was not able to be processed. If respiratory damage did not take their lives, cirrhosis eventually (usually) did.

Honestly, I don’t think “feverous” on its own is likely to have been put down as an official 1850s cause of death. In the unlikely event that they really were unable to pin it down beyond such a common symptom, they’d be more likely to have put just “Fever”, or “Feverish condition”.

(Disclaimer: I’m not remotely medically qualified but I do a lot of research, so I’ve looked at hundreds of these)

I still don’t think it’s a capital F anyway. I’m sticking with Scirrhous.

I've just had a massive update of posts - thanks so much for responding, all of you.

Scirrhous does look right, though also very interesting (but possibly coincidental timing) about the mining accident at Cwmtillery, wow. I just don't understand what the four months would be, if it were to do with the mining accident, rather than a disease.

I've only just started researching this branch of the family, so have nothing but names to go on. I've been putting it off for years because researching Owens in the valleys is like looking for Singhs in the Punjab.

OP if you are using Ancestry.com I suggest looking for some of the other miners who died in the accident on 27 May 1857. It's highly likely the same cause of death will be listed and the handwriting may be easier to read.

As I stated previously, I believe his death was registered on 29th May 1857 as having occurred on 27th May and 4 months is to do with finding his body - i.e. fireshower certified as his cause of death.

wow the certificate would have been written on the 29th, if "four months" had been added at a later date, the addition would have been dated and it would more than likely been written in different handwriting.

Perished 4 months certified

The first letter is definitely a copperplate capital S so the word is most likely to be scirrhous.

I am using Ancestry wow - definitely worth a try. It's still interesting, as even if he didn't die in an accident, that would be by nothing but the grace of god. Those men would have been his colleagues, and that risk would have been taken every day.

is “fireshower” actually established as a contemporary registrar’s term for an incident like that?

I just think it sounds a bit made up, sorry. Usually when the death was an accident you’d get a description in that section of the certificate - brief, but not as brief and cryptic as “fireshower”. And the language was typically quite plain and straightforward - so it would say for instance “explosion”.

Also, the usage of “4 months” on my own extensive array of certificates like this is always connected to the length of an illness, never to the delay between death and a body being recovered. If it was the latter, they would need to make it much clearer, if only in order to distinguish it from the vast majority of instances in which it was used to mean the length of the illness.

It's not a P though.

The signature of Henry Phillips (Registrar) occurs in the column at the far right, with a capital P to compare with.

That first letter is a capital S.

A capital F in copperplate wouldn't look like that either.

I don't think 'Fireshower' is a thing.

I can confirm it 100% says Scirrhous - I have an interest in this area!

www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/deathrolls/Cwmtillery.htm
Doesn't look like he was directly involved in the accident?

#teamscirrhous

It’s Scirrhous. No, fireshower is not a thing - that’s firedamp.

cirrhosis of liver among coal miners was a prevalent autoimmune disease, and too common

Could you link to the source please? I have never heard of coal miners being at high risk of cirrhosis and would be interested to read more.

4 months certified just means he was diagnosed four months prior to death.

i agree scirrhous. If you check out other s' s, c' s and R's they are the same

I must say, I see scirrhous too - letter for letter it fits best.

It does seem an odd coincidence that a pit explosion happened on the same day he died. I wonder if the death of a miner with a chronic condition might be conveniently ascribed to that, rather than any injury from an explosion, in order to keep casualty numbers down? At the very least it explains the delay of 2 days in reporting the death (I imagine local doctors would all be busy).