Working on the genealogy of your family can sometimes feel like taking a walk through history. The farther back you go from the present, the bigger a chance you have of finding an archaic term for something, or a word that you do not recognize at all. Sometimes, you will find out that an ancestor died from a particular disease, but have no idea what, exactly, that disease was.
Genealogy can be a tool to give you some insight about your health. It helps if you have an understanding of what that disease or condition actually was.
There are two basic reasons why you might find out that your ancestor died of a mysterious sounding disease. One reason is because as time has passed, we have renamed certain diseases. The other reason is because there were many things that caused death in the past that we are better able to avoid contracting today.
Here are a few of the odd sounding diseases that you may discover in your family tree:
Ague is more easily recognized as Malarial Fever. This disease includes intermittent fever, with a cycle of chills, fever, and sweating occurring regularly after a certain amount of time. It was also called “fever and ague”, “the shakes”, “Panama fever” and “Chagres fever”.
Black plague is another phrase for the Bubonic plague. Canine madness now goes by the much more familiar name of Rabies. Childbirth was the cause of death for many women. This can be due to complications with a birth, or an infection that was contracted during the birth itself.
Consumption is a a gradual wasting away of the body. It also was once called “marasmus”. It was the term that was previously used for what might be called Pulmonary Tuberculosis today. Dropsy of the Brain is now called Encephalitis. Dry Bellyache was a phrase for what was actually lead poisoning. Effluvia was also called “vapours”. It refers to exhalations or emanations that were noxious. It could be used to describe a disease that is contagious when airborne, “rubeolar” (measles), and noxious odors coming from animals or vegetables. If someone had the “fits” it means that they had a sudden attack or seizure of muscle activity. What we call Delirium tremens today, was once called “horrors”. Diphtheria used to be called Membranous Croup.
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