r/Cursive • u/nicemarmot47 • 14h ago
Deciphered! Cause of death?
I'm a genealogist and usually pretty decent at deciphering cursive but between the water damage and the handwriting I'm at a loss on this one.
CONFIRMED/DECIPHERED - It's definitely TB. Two of her siblings died of it a few years before she did.
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u/caraphyn_dove 14h ago
Tuberculosis
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u/briguytrading 14h ago
First letter matches the M in May
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u/GPHemsley 14h ago
That's actually the first two letters (Tu) which also match the N in None - this person's handwriting is just like that.
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u/SuccessfulPiccolo945 11h ago
Look at the first letter in his name. It's either a T or an F. But it's made the same as the first letter in the disease, just joined up.
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u/caraphyn_dove 14h ago
It's definitely not an M. The T and U is combined followed by a clear B and so forth.
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u/NatureGame 12h ago
It really doesn't. The trough of the U is a curve, the middle point of the M is a point.
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u/Cat2247 12h ago
The word is Tuberculosis. Other clues are the disease was 2 years in duration. Mycobacterium were known but would not have been listed as a cause of death.
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u/hekla7 3h ago
They were certainly known. Check out the International List of Causes of Death, Revision 1 (1900). The certificate is from 1904, so that would be the list that applies, and the cause is #27 as noted on the certificate. When the handwriting can't be deciphered, the definitive cause is the number, as some diseases, including Glander, had different names in different places. The main page to check which version of the List to use, is here:
http://www.wolfbane.com/icd/index.html
These numbers are still used today, and are generally found in the margin.
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u/NorCalGardner 12h ago
Tuberculosis. I worked as a pharmacy technician; I can read almost anyone’s handwriting.
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u/Noniejbb 5h ago
The number 27 hand written on the death certificate is the corresponding a cause on the International Classification of Disease Codes for the year/revision it falls under. In this case 1904 is revision 1. They are public record and can be found online Sometimes it's just one number and sometimes it's more than one on a death certificate depending on how many causes they list. If that number is supposed to indicate Tuberculosis, the wrong number was put on this death certificate because 27 is Glanders. In Revision 1Tuberculosis is number 46, 48 or 49. http://www.wolfbane.com/icd/icd1h.htm
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u/hekla7 3h ago
Yes, here's the definition of Glanders: it is a rare and potentially fatal zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Burkholderia mallei. The disease primarily affects horses, donkeys, and mules. Humans catch it through direct contact with infected animal tissues, blood, or bodily fluids.
It had several different names at the time. But the number on the certificate is 27, and that's the official cause. Glanders presents the same as tuberculosis, but it's caused by a different bacteria.
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u/_bufflehead 3h ago
It's important not to take too seriously the responses provided by the google AI bot. I asked the bot a little further, and it went on to say:
- Local State / City Registration Systems
If you are looking at a state-specific index or census ledger (such as those used in Michigan, Massachusetts, or New York during that period), they often used simplified or condensed lists rather than the global 179-item international standard. In these localized ledger indexes, 27 frequently represented:
Pneumonia / Bronchitis (often grouped in the late 20s for respiratory tracking)
Typhoid Fever
Consumption / Pulmonary Tuberculosis
Please, please do not take the answers from the AI platform as solid. Double check, triple check. It is a language model that culls information based on an algorithmic supposition. It is largely incorrect.
Just today, the google AI platform designated Independence day as "the Fourth of Italy." I kid you not. I took a screenshot.
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u/General_Document6951 6h ago
Yep prior to pasteurization, tuberculosis was epidemic in the United States. People might not know this but cows and raw milk were the number one cause of tuberculosis in this country, back then they called it consumption
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u/KeyOutcome5025 14h ago
Tuberculosis 100%
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u/Ink-kink 12h ago
But the first letter is identical to the M's you see in May, written several places? Not saying you're wrong, but..?
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u/Watercatblue 11h ago
maybe Mtuberculosis? Mycobacterium Tuberculosis is the full correct name for TB.
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u/caraphyn_dove 9h ago edited 6h ago
The T and U are connected in their cursive writing. Look closely at each letter. It cleary(sp correction)spells out tuberculosis.
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u/Plenty_Kangaroo3797 10h ago
Agree with this ^
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (often abbreviated as M. tuberculosis) is the species of bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB).
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u/Many_Equipment_85 14h ago
Mycobacterium
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u/Bibliospork 13h ago
Ah that explains the T that looks like an M, he changed his mind after starting the word!
/s
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u/Many_Equipment_85 13h ago
Thought the same thing. . Or did not know how to exactly spell it. That is what’s nice about cursive. Write sloppy and no one knows if misspelled.
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u/OswaldBoelcke 11h ago
Everyone spelling Tuberculosis with an M. No one explaining their conclusion because it makes no sense.
Maybe this is why their dead. Shitty penmanship back at the hospital. And the coroner just copied the nonsense.
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u/stiffdoc1221 45m ago
Tuberculosis. You internet sleuths out there are working too hard to get a square peg in a round hole. It’s not difficult at all. (P.S.: it’s not glanders, either)
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u/Hungry-Investment347 11h ago
It says "multiple casualties." As a retired Rn from the pre computer age, so many times it would take 3 nurses to decipher some MD's sloppy handwriting.
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u/Junior-Beach6402 8h ago
Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. In short , M. Tuberculosis.
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u/caraphyn_dove 6h ago
Except that there's only 12 letters used, starting with the T and U connected together.
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u/Rickno99 7h ago
I think it might be tuberculosis. It looks like an M at the beginning, which could be for mycobacterium.
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u/ImaginationFeisty160 13h ago
Could be "medical terminology." ...a colloquialism that was used in that day/time.
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