Typhoid Fever Victims

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mavis Jones on October 10, 2009 at 3:00pm

Don't have an answer to your question but my great-grandmother who died July 25 1917 has a similiar death certificate. According to the death certificate, my great grandmother died from pellegra.

Permalink Reply by Spivey on October 11, 2009 at 8:07am

Hi, Mavis. I don't have any more information either. I wonder if Russell Felder's wife, Jalura Glover, died from the fever as well? She died of 'apoplexy' in 1916. When I see the word 'apoplexy', I think of some kind of fit. Dying so young, I wonder if she was an early victim of this particular scourge. Spivey

Permalink Reply by Spivey on October 11, 2009 at 12:49pm

Thanks, Gene. I think I will always envision 'apoplexy' as someone falling down having a 'fit' as it was called, even in my day. I am glad to reopen this discussion because the information you and others provide only add to my understanding of what my ancestors' lives were like. Spivey

Permalink Reply by Spivey on October 11, 2009 at 1:42pm

Thanks, Gene. I shudder to think of what a horrific death that must have been. My saving grae is that in those days our ancestors were somewhat used to death by whatever means [witness the number of births and the number of living children as shown on census records]. I, for one, am not as strong as my ancestors were. Spivey

Permalink Reply by Spivey on October 11, 2009 at 3:49pm

That is where I am lacking, Gene. I do not know what medical conditions 'apoplexy' described. Like I said, to me it meant a person falling out in a fit. Right now, it only conjures up memories of someone rolling on the floor while we stand around in shock. Spivey

Permalink Reply by Spivey on October 11, 2009 at 10:21am

WOW! I have to digest this information. One of my biggest brick walls in doing research into my family history has been family lore. Both my father and my uncle said their mother was a pure-bred Apache Indian. When I looked into Apaches in Georgia, however, I encountered nothing but resistance to the notion that Georgia was Apache territory, so I gave up that line of research [not because I thought my father and uncle were being untruthful but because of the resistance I got everywhere to the notion that my paternal grandmother could have been an Apache].

I am not changing my research strategies because I am not looking to be a member of a Native American tribe/nation. [I have enough difficulty being a Black American, I don't need that headache.] However, the closer I get to confirming family lore, the closer I get to documenting wht is important to me - my familiy hsitory.

Permalink Reply by Mavis Jones on October 13, 2009 at 10:53pm

Gene,

Thanks. After finding ggrandmother's death certificate, I did read up on pellagra. Still confused as to why nothing is indiciated in the undertaker and burial sections of the death certificate.

Permalink Reply by Unknown Ancestor on October 16, 2009 at 4:36pm

You can google for a lot of sites about the typhoid disaster. It depends how medically technical you want to get.
Many of them are related to the military's involvement with the disease and its spread.

Besides local news items, be sure to go for coroner's inquests. Mass cremations or burials do not mean there is no paper trail...