Sudden Death

Sometimes, particularly if the death of an ancestor was sudden, there may be records that give you more information about the circumstances.

In the past, I've come across the death certificate of a woman who died suddenly in her home village. The coroner found the cause of her death to be 'found dead in road.' For some reason this seemed to be good enough - although I don't really think it counts as a cause of death. A newspaper reports how she had collapsed in the street while returning from a neighbour's house, not far from home.


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Her son's death was no less sudden. At a much younger age when he died suddenly in the middle of the night, his apparent stroke was reported to have been caused by over-working in the garden the day before. Newspapers claim he sighed, turned over in his sleep, and died - although, they also managed to get his first name wrong, speed being more important than accuracy to many Victorian journalists.

Family trees are full of stories - but some seem to stand out more than others!