Just asking for our future generations

The past period has been very interesting. My wife has been researching her family and I have a relative (cousin) in Australia who has researched his/our family and the Anglo Boer war and camps. I don’t want to go into their research and findings except to say that they are both quite meticulous about looking for crosschecks regarding facts and family stories.

Typical problems that are experienced relate specifically to death notices and death certificates. It has nothing to do with transcriptions from the original documents but rather with the contents of the documents. One instance in particular comes to mind in my own family. My great grandmother was born in Bethlehem based on her birth and marriage certificates. She was widowed and married a second time for 10 months prior to her death. Her new husband gave her place of birth as Cape Town on both the death notice and death certificate. On his marriage certificate of 10 months prior, her place of birth was given as Bethlehem OFS. The problem with death notices and death certificates is that the information is based on the knowledge of the person reporting and the doctor. The doctor is liable for the medical correctness whereas the personal details are normally provided by a friend or family member. The details are, more often than not, reliant on personal knowledge, hearsay or perception. In the case above, the doctor reported the cause of death as being pharyngeal abscess which is a severe throat infection often caused by a scratch or foreign object. It is not unusual in small children but very unusual in adults unless immunocompromised. She progressed quite rapidly from the infection into overall infection to coma and death. The certificate states “about 2 days in hospital”. Her youngest sister told me that she had a brain tumour. Cancer (brain tumour) would have left her immunocompromised which could well have contributed. In the absence of further information from her spouse, who may or may not have known about the tumour, the doctor would likely not have known. He simply reported what he saw. Her spouse appears to have only known her superficially and one can speculate about why they married. She was poor with three children aged between 7 and 14 years old. They were married out of community of property and her estate was worth less than £300. It is also stated that there were some movable assets purchased under a hire purchase agreement. Short version is that while the documents are useful, they can be misleading and require crosschecking. This is especially true when anecdotal information is used as in the death certificate and notice such as children’s names. Her husband had forgotten and guessed or made an incorrect assumption when he said that she was born in Cape Town and not Bethlehem. Perception is not fact. Anecdotal information can be included but can be misleading.

Staying with death certificates and notices, genealogists sometime in the future are going to face some interesting situations. We have this classification, “COVID related deaths”. I am not certain what the standard is for recoding the deaths and if there is a standard. We have heard about comorbidities being a secondary underlying condition which can render a person more susceptible to contracting COVID 19. HIV Aids is one of these conditions. HIV Aids may not be reported as a cause of death on an official document despite the fact that it may be the prime factor allowing the contraction of the virus. Cancer and chemotherapy with or without radiation leaves a person immunocompromised. Diabetes we have heard also increases the likelihood of contracting severe COVID 19. Tuberculosis is another. HIV Aids can increase the chance of contracting tuberculosis. A person with severe COVID 19 viral infection could succumb to anyone of a number of direct causes of death such as viral pneumonia, multiple organ failure, kidney failure, heart failure, etc.. What is the cause of death? Do you record the direct final cause only or the contributory conditions as well? If add the contributory conditions, how far do you go? Is there a standard? We know government wants to know when COVID is implicated so that will appear. Would the person have passed away anyway in the absence of COVID or not?

People are using DNA to predict their susceptibility to contracting certain diseases and they then apply some form of preventative measure. We do not record HIV Aids as a cause of death but only the direct contributor. Are we doing future generations a disservice. We know that HIV Aids increases the likelihood of contracting cancer. People base some major decisions now on the information contained in these documents.

How do we check the veracity and accuracy of the historical documents? Can we improve the current recording and reporting to include contributory factors? Are we doing future generations a disservice by not recording HIV Aids as a contributor?

Just asking for our future generations.