causes of death on genealogy records
A resource for family history from AmericanAncestors.org. Cause of death: a genealogical clue. Cause of death: senile gangrene, commonly known today as arteriosclerosis, or the thickening and loss of elasticity in the arteries. No document is more pivotal to genealogical work than a death certificate. The reason for its importance goes far beyond simply providing researchers with a date of death for an individual. Perhaps just as critical to understanding family history as the date of death is the cause of death. Records of deaths were originally kept by churches in the colonial period, but eventually these records led to the development of legal documents which served a similar purpose.