Old 1800 death cert. can’t read it

razor8

can anyone read what this says. It’s a certificate for cause of death relating back to 1870

can see at bottom it says no medical attendant

A0435068-A4A3-4462-B685-52B82858869C.jpeg

Is it possible to find other records written by the same person so you can see their handwriting style?

gozunda

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058228744/old-1800-death-cert-can-t-read-it

I'll take a stab

The first word is Phthisis - an old name for Tuberculosis. This is a fairly common cause of death on old death certificates. (The last letter is an old style lower case 's')

The second line reads "3 weeks" - which would be the duration of the final illness to the date of death

I think the next line is the name of the informant who registered the death

The last line reads "No medical attendant" meaning that there was no doctor or similar present at the time of death.

Hope that helps.

FintanMcluskey

Is the first word pertussis?

looksee

Does the third line say Medical Officer? Could the first line be a signature or name.

jmlad2020

If I was a guessing man the top line reads something like "pleurisy" total guess. Ailment of the day perhaps.

spurious

I'd be going with Phthisis too. If you give the name and date there may well be a better scan available.

razor8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118497566#Comment_118497566

Brilliant. That looks spot on & definitely right on all lines

poor girl was only 12

chuffed to get that

that’s a million

Well done on figuring out the first two lines gozunda - I would never have got that.

I think the 3rd line is 'UnCertified' and relates to the 'No Medical Attendant' note.

Melodeon

There's a thread over in the Genealogy forum dedicated entirely to this sort of thing:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2057459148/handwriting-decipher-thread-must-post-link-to-full-page#latest

BringingSexyBack

What is it with the medical profession? Do they intentionally write in a manner that makes it impossible for people to understand what they wrote. Some of their handwriting is horrendous . How on earth do their colleagues and chemists understand it ?

spurious

That would have been filled out by the Registrar in the Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, rather than a doctor, but I agree it's shocking.

It's not (by a long way) the worst though - all the more surprising when you would think a requirement for the job would be legible handwriting.

The same people occupied the post for a long period, so it's the luck of the draw as to whether the area you are looking at had someone with lovely copperplate handwriting or a scribbler.

Crocodile Booze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118497583#Comment_118497583

Was big Tony Holohan around back that far? What a guy.

Ger Roe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118507082#Comment_118507082

True, it seems people filling out the handwritten forms sometimes did not appreciate the historical record keeping aspect. The death cert for my Grandfather was written in the 1980's and looks like a spider walked through an inkwell, before ambling across the page. If I didn't already know the details, I would get no info from it.

Even these days, when providing death cert details it is typed up by the registrar on a PC and on the thankfully few occasions where I have provided details, there have been mistakes when the draft was handed back to me for proof reading.