More Causes of Death You Don’t Want on Your Death Certificate

Family History
20 May 2013
by Jana Broglin 

Death certificates aren’t the only places you’ll find causes of death listed, along with the stories that accompany them. You can find them in obituaries, newspapers, government reports—even if you’re just an “ordinary” citizen. Regardless of exactly where they appear in print, here are a few more ways you really don’t want to go.

Vulnus Sclopeticum

Vulnus sclopeticum “infected” and killed thousands of young men in and around Antietam, Maryland, on September 17, 1862. The Civil War was on, and vulnus sclopeticum was a fancy Latin term for “gunshot wound.” It was sometimes abbreviated “Vulnus Sclopet” when you had to write it over and over, as the doctors did in this death register  for Union Army volunteers.

Unrequited Love

This is more often a contributing factor rather than the ultimate cause of death, but it’s tragic all the same—and so was some of the purple prose reporters used to describe these deaths:

Liberator (Boston, Massachusetts), July 25, 1835

 

Adams Sentinel (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) June 5, 1832
Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), February 8, 1853

 

 

 

 

 

Deaths of American Citizens Abroad

Anything with the word Titanic on it, and the odds are definitely not in your favor:

At least this one might have a little romance to it: “Accident while in flying machine.” In Mexico. Flying for Pancho Villa.

 

 

Struck Down

Speaking of odds, “killed by lightning” just seems to be one of the ultimate expressions of bad luck. Though in this report from the Waldo Advocate (KS), things turned out luckier for Otto than the horses.

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