Because of Women’s History Month, I thought I would pull together information on how the women who came before me passed away. I wanted to put all my grandmothers together in one post and thought by sharing their deaths it would shed some light on their lives, at least at the end. I also have a ghoulish fascination with looking them over for the variety of ways I might die myself. After all, their deaths could be a form of inheritance.
But what I discovered made me pretty mad at myself. I have so neglected death certificates. I think it’s because a death certificate in Michigan tends to be a document that I have to pay for that I have relied on social security death info, as well as burial info and death registry dates. I haven’t been assertive about going after the certificates themselves. This is why I don’t call myself a genealogist, but a family historian. I’m more of a storyteller than a rock solid researcher.
Here are my grandmothers and great-grandmothers and how they died.
My maternal grandmother, Lucille Edna Mulder Zuidweg, passed away on 21 September 2000 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, at age 88. After the death of my grandfather three months earlier, she was ill and living at a nursing home for round the clock care. The real round the clock care came from my aunt who slept in a chair in Grandma’s room. She was with her most of the time. What my aunt did is wonderful because Grandma hated being in an institutional place. She was like me about that, and it must have been horrible for her there. Thank goodness, she had her daughter with her.
Grandma on our left
I didn’t have her death certificate, so I had to order it from Kalamazoo County. It arrived without a hitch. I see that the cause of death was congestive heart failure. The documentation gives no evidence of all she went through with the cancers that she had. The congestive heart failure might be explained by science in one way, but my explanation is that she died of a broken heart after losing my grandfather.
My paternal grandmother, Marie Klein (Kline) Wakefield, passed away on 25 April, 1974, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She had been living in the Upjohn Nursing Home, which at the time was the premier nursing home in Kalamazoo. Her ex-neighbor and friend, Shirley Kulp, was the head nurse so there was always someone to watch over Grandma. Grandma was 82.
The above photo is my grandmother, Marie. In case you’re wondering about the difference in styles between the one of my grandmother, Edna, Marie was fully 20 years older than Edna.
I didn’t have Marie’s death certificate either, so I had to order it from Kalamazoo County.
Are you noticing the pattern here? [Knocking head against wall]
Luckily, it came in the mail with my other grandmother’s certificate.
Grandma passed away from uremia. I did remember that cause of death, although I had heard of it as a diagnosis while she was still alive, but dying in the hospital. This grandmother is who I inherited my congenital primary lymphedema from.
Then there are my four great-grandmothers.
Margarethe Wendel Klein died 24 May 1932 in Elmhurst, Illinois. I have her death certificate (woohoo!). I also have a corrected certificate. The only thing corrected is her birth date, and guess what? Both documents are wrong! According to the Catholic church books in Budesheim, Margarethe was born on June 25, 1869, NOT May 30, 1869 as it says on the death certificate and NOT June 24, 1870 as it says on the corrected copy.
She died of a diabetic coma and also had nephritis and myocarditis. Her health had obviously been poor, although she was only 62–the age I am now. She had also already lost two of her five children, so she had been through a lot. When Margarethe died, her body lay in a casket in their house in Elmhurst. My father told me that there was a thunderstorm during the time it was there, and that the grandchildren were terrified at the combination of events and hid under the huge picnic table style dining room table. She was buried on May 27, but it looks like (from historical rainfall records) the storm most likely occurred the day after her death, on May 25.
Francoise Schirmer (Schermer) Scholler died 22 October 1914 in Duluth, Minnesota.
Cause of death at age 71: chronic nephritis and arterioschlerosis.
Cora DeKorn Zuidweg died at age 57 on 16 September 1932 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I have posted about this one in the past.
Cause of death: Exhaustion – debility from gen – metastatic sarcoma spindle cell – primary in left thigh, followed injury was removed 9-16-29 – had existed there 5 years.
Clara Waldeck Mulder died on 6 September 1953 in Kent County, Michigan, at age 69. I did not have her death certificate and ordered it from Kent County. I knew that she died of cancer, but I had eagerly awaited the actual cause of death on the certificate. When I received the document, I saw that cause of death was carcinoma of the uterus. That is what I had been told.
Don’t tell me it doesn’t unnerve you a little when you see that your ancestors died too young, even if they were older people. Since my grandmothers were 82 and 88, I figured that was a normal lifetime. But when I add in the great-grandmothers’ ages at death the average goes way down. The average of the age at death of all six ladies is 71.5. The average age for the 4 greats is 64.75. I feel blessed that they were all old enough when they died to see their children grow up. Every woman doesn’t have that opportunity, obviously. And look at the pattern. All four greats died much younger than my grandmothers, so things are improving, probably from better healthcare.
Of six grandmothers, I had three death certificates and was able to order the other three. Can I take it back another generation to the 2x greats? There will be eight women. How many certificates will I produce? A future post, peeps!
Pulling all of this together is an interesting and disciplined idea. I might try something similar sometime.
I’m starting to think of it cross-sectioning my research. It really allowed me to see clearly that I was missing some important documents. I will probably do this with various other documents and other groups of ancestors.
I can definitely see how it would show you what you don’t have. “Cross-sectioning” is a great way to describe it.
It’s going to be one of my focuses this year.
So interesting and sad, and boy do I relate to your remark about being a family historian rather than a true genealogist. I’ve been so hyperfocused on all the photos I have that I often neglect the actual documents. My records are in need of some upkeep.
That is actually how I started–through the photos and the need to identify, scan, and organize them. And having a lot of photos, as you know, is a treasure, but they are most useful when identified and the documents can help with that!
What an interesting way to look at these six women—through their deaths. I am glad you were able to get death certificates for all of them. One thing that has surprised me in my research is how many people died from kidney disease—two on your list here also. Heart disease and cancer don’t surprise me, but I was not aware of how common and how deadly kidney disease was. Great post, Luanne!
Luckily, this group all died in the 20th century, so the records were findable. The next group will be much more difficult because of dying in the 19th century and/or dying in another country (especially German and French records). I was thinking about the two kidney diseases on there yesterday. I know that when I was younger my father especially was worried that I might have a kidney disease (because of the lymphedema and an incidental finding of albuminaria). But he actually discovered belatedly that he had very little function to his kidneys. Both the kidney disease deaths are on his side of the family. Thanks, Amy!
It does seem that older and foreign death certificates do not include cause of death—maybe (at least with the older ones) because medical science was not advanced enough to make that determination? I also have read that before 1920 or so, causes of death were determined rather unscientifically so may not even be accurate.
So we can only count on the ones from the past 100 years then. Ugh. That is such a disappointment. I am so gullible that I believed that they knew that Catherine of Aragon died of cancer, but in checking on it, I now realize that they thought it was poison but in more recent times her cause of death has been determined to be cancer. Oh well, I still need the 2xgreats’ death certificates!
It may vary by state, but I have not found any causes of death on German death records. For my great-grandparents, who all died in the 20th century, I was able to find causes of death, and at least in PA there were causes of death as early as 1860 when my great-great-great-grandfather died in Philadelphia. But I can’t say much about other states that early since I had no ancestors who died here in other states before the 1880s or so.
I am going to be watching for this in my own records. Thanks for giving me another way to link across the individuals!!
Good luck! I look forward to seeing what you can find.
Thank you!
But whether those stated causes were accurate is a whole other matter! (My 3xGGF’s cause of death at 88 was “old age.” Well, duh!)
Hahaha. Yes, duh. But how did he REALLY die is what I want to know!!!
Exactly!
Interesting post, Luanne. I’ve collected quite a few death records over the years, but never really put them together to see if any patterns emerge. We know that some illnesses can be passed on to future generations, such as breast cancer and, some say, obesity, with its concomitant health consequences. As time advanced better understanding of the human body led to more detailed explanations. Some of the older nineteenth century ones simply say “old age”. In the nineteenth century, working environments were more dangerous, leading to relatively early deaths, mainly among men, but women worked in textile mills and could suffer fatal injuries or respiratory diseases that would finish them off in the end.
A short anecdote. In the supermarket one day, Dad, who was abut 80, put some cream cakes in the trolley. An elderly lady told him: “they’re no good for you, you know”. Dad: “Well, something’s going to get me, and it might as well be something I enjoy”.
Slainte Mhath
Andrew
Hi Andrew! Yes, I think I am going to have more trouble with this project with older generations, in part because of the tendency to record the death as “old age,” or in the case of Dutch records, there doesn’t seem to be a cause of death, which is very annoying. I agree on the dangerous accidents in the workplace. Also, some of my male relatives were injured in vehicle accidents (public transportation, early cars, etc.). Women also often died in childbirth or what I am seeing more often even is from circumstances related to giving birth where they died within the next month or two (a lingering death).
I love what your dad said! I like his philosophy!
Thanks for stopping by, Andrew.
Your post highlighted something that I had actually been thinking about myself Luanne – I don’t have my maternal grandmother’s death certificate. This came to light when I asked my older sister how Granma had died. Must order that certificate today. Great read as always. Julie
Oh, I’m glad I reminded you to order the certificate! Isn’t that odd that we forget about something so basic? Maybe it’s a Freudian slip of some kind! Good luck getting it, Julie!
Wonderful post Luanne. I always love seeing the photo’s when reading about the people. It certainly brings that 3 dimension that documents simply can’t do. I love the perspective of this post. All 3 woman were so beautiful too 🙂
Oh, thank you so much (on their behalf)! Of the greats, I have photos of 3 of the 4. They were all pretty, too. So of course I have curiosity about the one I don’t have the photo of ;)!
What a great idea!! Time to order some death certificates!
You don’t know how much better I feel to know that others have not collected all their death certificates yet either!
I put 2 requests in the mail this morning!
What a great idea Luanne. I have all but my maternal grandmother’s death certificate, because they are all available (cheaply) from Scotland’s People. My gran died in 2006, but I suspect my mum might have a copy of the certificate. Hm.
I really like your comment about being a family historian, rather than a genealogist. I think I’m the same; it’s the social context of my ancestors’ lives that really interests me. 🙂
Su, I like that: the social context. Me too. A beautifully crafted and researched pedigree to me is just paper. The stories moves off the page and into the imagination and heart when you learn the social context!!!
Absolutely! On a side note, I was so taken with your grandmothers research I’ve started doing my own. I have a few more missing certificates than I thought, but on the plus side, I have death records for all but one of my 2x great grandmothers too. It’s turning out to be quite fascinating. It seems that if my grans made it past 50, they had a good chance of living well into their 70s and beyond. 🙂
Oh, you’ve done well! Do you think you can find those two death records or not? Do they all show causes of death or not?
My mother probably has her mother’s death certificate, and I guess I could order my great gran’s (it’s relatively expensive, so I’ll ask around my cousins first). The older ones that I don’t have are mainly due to not having researched those women sufficiently.
All the certificates have cause of death and it’s a mixed bag: heart failure, strokes, cancers, bronchitis, and a few other things. One I’m sure died in childbirth, but I’m having trouble confirming it.
The thing I’m really blown away by is that — except for my maternal gran who died in 2006 and one really elusive 2x great gran — all my great grandmothers AND 2x great grandmothers died in the 20th century.
Another interesting read…I do not have all the research materials either…maybe when I retire. I will find the time to collect and catalog all the extra information.
It takes a lot of time and a clear head to keep it all organized. Plus you need a good place to store the paper documents even after they are scanned.
My mother had my great grandfather’s death certificate and I was surprised to learn he had died as a result of cancer of the mouth. I had then remembered his father had once run a tobacconist shop. My grandmother(his daughter) gave up smoking in her sixties and had lived into her nineties.
Oh, what a shame. His death must have motivated her to quit. Quite amazing to quit in her sixties!
She had had a minor heart attack.
[…] the author of a blog I follow, The Family Kalamazoo, posted a piece about the cause of death of some of her female ancestors. Over the years I have […]
[…] Their Grandma was photographed by Jeanne in the summer of 1952, and she would die 6 September 1953, at the age of 69 years old of uterine cancer. (Yes, her death certificate is posted here). […]
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