Medical Terms found in Death Records

I have encountered many unusual medical terms explaining ‘cause of death.’ Some of them I could figure out but others, I just wasn’t sure of. Obviously many of the same conditions exist today but with all of the modern scientific approaches to medicines they been granted more appropriate and understandable names. I thought it might be helpful for others who are doing their family research for me to list some of the ‘curious’ ones I have come across.  They had heart disease, still born babies. blue babies, TB, diphtheria and even suicides. What I didn’t find much of was measles, scarlet fever or cancer. When I find the death record of an ancestor, it is usually on a page with 25-30 other names. I have chosen some of the more unusual ones from death records in Boston in the 1875-1885 era.

Apoplexy – This appears to be what we today call a stroke.

Cholera Infantum – Infants seemed to be the most effected by this with uncontrollable diarrhea and then collapse. This seemed to be associated with hot weather and large cities.

Compression of Brain – This is apparently when the brain swells after an injury

Congestion of liver – Probably what we know as cirrhosis of the liver

Consumption of Bowels – tuberculosis of the intestinal tract

Inanition – the quality of being empty. I would guess starving, maybe due to not being able to keep food down.

Marasmas – generally a wasting away due to a feeble condition, not really attributed to any specific cause. Saw this recorded for quite a few babies

Mitral Regurgitation – the mitral heart value doesn’t close completely, allowing blood to flow back into the heart, causing the heart to work less efficiently

Paralysing Heart – pretty much what it sounds like – a heart that no longer has any function

Parturition Septicaemia – infection during child birth

Pericarditis – inflammation of the sac around the heat due to either a virus or bacteria, with chest pain

Phthisis Pulmanitis – A wasting away of the lungs, better known as consumption or  tuberculosis

Supperating glands – swollen glands that begin to discharge fluids or pus

Teething – the closest I can find on this is that teething caused severe diarrhea which, in turn, caused debilitation

Traumatic peritonitis – traumatic meaning injury, inflammation of the lining of the abdomen usually caused by bacteria or fungi

Tuberculosis – in general, this disease could effect any organ, where the symptoms might vary but the result would still be the same.

Tubercular Meningitis – An inflammation of the membranes of the brain, in this case      caused by tuberculosis.      

Typhoid – an infectious disease introduced with food or water causing inflammation of mucous membranes, in this case the bowels, and enlargement of the spleen and glands

Wikipedia

www.MayoClinic.org

Merriam Webster Dictionary

http://www.webmd.com/

Brodericks in the 20th Century

Matthew and Bridget Sheehan Broderick have moved from East Boston to Lynn, MA and are found there in 1892, living at 17 Sea St. The census reports have said they had 8 children but only three of them survived. Their oldest surviving son and child is Patrick John (Jack) Broderick, my grandfather. He was raised in the Catholic Church of the day and attended parochial school in Lynn. When he was old enough, he became a Baggage Master on the B. R.B. and L. railroad, better known as the Narrow Gauge.

Matthew’s younger sister, Catherine Broderick O’Brien, died in 1898 from renal failure. She was living at 17 Hudson St., which today, is in the heart of Chinatown in Boston. She was called a washerwoman.  Of her children, all is that is known is Catherine, the oldest, was living with her mother at the time of her mother’s death. She was a waitress. She married Hermann Dittrich, who was a cook, in Jan. 1899. Sadly, Catherine O’Brien Dittrich died before 1900. No death record can be found for her and nothing more is known of a brother, Martin O’Brien.

1900 – Matthew and Bridget Sheehan Broderick are living at 17 Sea St. in Lynn, MA. The                census states that they adopted Michael O’Brien, age 12, s/o Catherine Broderick                  O’Brien, widow, deceased, Matthew’s sister.

          Patrick Joseph Broderick, s/o Lawrence (deceased) and Catherine Jordan                             Broderick, married Anna L. Murray, from Lowell, MA on Nov. 29 1900, in Hyde Park,             MA.

1901 – Patrick H. Burke s/o Patrick and Mary Broderick Burke, married Mary Agnes                           McGuire, from Steeltown PA, in Hyde Park, MA on Jun 27 1901.

          Patrick John Broderick, s/o Matthew and Bridget Sheehan Broderick, married Alvina             May Chambers from Winthrop, MA, on Nov 1, 1901, in Winthrop, MA.

          Michael H. Burke, s/o Patrick and Mary Broderick Burke, married Catherine Finnerty             on Nov 20 1901 in Hyde Park, MA

1902 – Mary Thelma Burke, d/o Patrick and Mary Agnes McGuire Burke, b. Feb 2 1902 in                Hyde Park, MA.

          Lawrence Francis Broderick, s/o Patrick Joseph and Anna Murray Broderick,                         b. Feb 11 1902 in Hyde Park, MA.

          Marion Alberta Broderick, d/ Patrick John (Jack) and Alvina Chambers Broderick,                   b. Feb 28, 1902, in Winthrop, MA.

1903 – Mary Elizabeth Broderick, d/o Patrick Joseph and Anna Murray Broderick,                            b. Feb 25, 1903 in Hyde Park, MA

          John Edward Burke, s/o Michael and Catherine Finnerty Burke, b. Mar 9 1903 in                   Hyde Park, MA.

          Mary Ellen Broderick, d/o Matthew and Bridget Sheehan Broderick, married Lawrence           (Larry) Keating in Lynn, MA on Oct. 29 1903.

1904 – Margaret Ethel Burke, d/o Patrick H. and Mary Agnes McGuire Burke,  b. Jan. 1904,             in Hyde Park, MA.

          Mary Agnes Keating, d/o Lawrence and Mary Ellen Broderick Keating, b. Dec. 1904,             in Lynn, MA

1905 – Mary Agnes Keating, d/o Lawrence and Mary Ellen Broderick Keating,                                   d. May 16 1905, in Lynn, MA. Death certificate says COD was tubercular                      meningitis.

          Margaret Ethel Burke, d/o Patrick H. and Mary Agnes McGuire Burke,                                     d. Aug 21 1905, in Hyde Park, MA. COD was fermental diarrhea.

          Raymond Eugene Broderick, s/o Patrick Joseph and Anna Murray Broderick,                         b. Oct 24 1905, in Hyde Park, MA.

1906 – Thomas Henry Burke, s/o Michael and Catherine Finnerty Burke, b. Jan 2, 1906 in                  Hyde, Park, MA.

          Regina Stella Burke, d/o Patrick H. and Mary Agnes McGuire Broderick, b. Apr 25                 1906 in Hyde Park, MA.

          Raymond Eugene Broderick, s/o Patrick Joseph and Anna Murray Broderick,                         d. Aug 15, 1906, in Hyde Park, MA. COD on death certificate states meningitis and               whooping cough.

         

          Ruth Eileen Broderick, d/o Patrick John (Jack) and Alvina Chambers Broderick,                     b. Sep 5 1906, in Winthrop, MA

          Joseph Broderick, s/o Patrick Joseph and Anna Murray Broderick, b. Oct 5 1906 in                Hyde Park, MA.

1907 –

1908 – Agnes May Burke, d/o Patrick and Agnes McGuire Burke, b. May 15 1908 in                         Hyde Park, MA.

1909 – Lawrence Broderick, s/o Lawrence and Catherine Jordan Broderick, married                         Catherine Lehane on Jan 20 1909, in Hyde Park, MA.

          Lillian Adelaide Keating, d/o Larry and Mary Ellen Broderick Keating, b. Apr 10, 1909,           in Lynn, MA

          Edward Joseph Burke, s/o Michael and Catherine Finnerty Burke, b. Jun 24 1909, in             Hyde Park, MA             

          Anna Broderick, d/o Patrick Joseph and Anna Murray Broderick, b. 1909, in Hyde                 Park, MA.

1910 – Mary Broderick, d/o Lawrence and Catherine Lehane Broderick, b. Jan 2 1910, in                Hyde Park, MA

          John Aloysius Broderick, s/o Patrick Joseph and Anna Murray Broderick, b. Jul 27                 1910, in Hyde Park, MA

At the beginning of this decade, when Patrick John (Jack) Broderick married Alvina Chambers, it set into motion circumstances that would last for nearly 100 years. To a devout Irish Catholic family, Jack Broderick did the unthinkable and unforgivable act of marrying outside the Catholic faith.  Alvina Chambers was a Baptist and – according to the church of the day – it was a sin for him to marry her. His mother Bridget Sheehan Broderick disowned him. The family church in Lynn, MA, possibly St. Joseph’s, saw fit to excommunicate him and condemn his soul to hell from the pulpit, one Sunday morning. To the best of anyone’s knowledge he neither saw nor spoke to his mother ever again. While she lived, no other member of the family was known to contact him. Bridget Sheehan Broderick died in 1912 and the family began to mend itself. However, bitterness toward the church remained a big part of my grandfather’s life. His children could have Catholic friends but they must never set foot in a Catholic church. My mother was the second of his three children. We had many long talks about the family and what she remembered. It is my belief that she never knew she had Broderick, Burke and O’Brien cousins. Perhaps they just didn’t keep in touch, since Lynn and Winthrop were a fair distance from Hyde Park. However, I also believe that my grandfather put all his Hyde Park relatives in a closet and shut the door, since it’s fairly certain he never mentioned them. His father, sister and her family all became frequent visitors to Jack’s home but it’s fairly certain that his younger brother Lawrence never reconciled with him. My mother knew very little about him, only that he lived in Lynn. I’m not sure she ever met him. It wasn’t until the 1990’s when I spent some time at the MA Archives that I discovered my grandfather was not the oldest child in his family. This self-inflicted brick wall of my gt. grandmother’s, beginning in 1901, was finally torn down.

Broderick Graves in Winthrop MA

As always, I would be delighted to hear from anyone who is connected to any of the people mentioned in the Broderick blogs.

Census records 1900 and 1910

Birth and Death Records and Certificates

Marriage Records

City Directories

Cemetery Records

American Medicine, Vol. 7, p. 738, 1904

And an apology – it was noted after the fact that my sources didn’t get attached to my previous blog on the Brodericks. They were:

Census records 1900

Birth and Death Records and Certificates

Marriage Records

Cemetery Records