Family History Tips—Part 44

Exploring other Cryptic Markings—Pennsylvania Death Certificates 1906-1966
by Brenna Corbit, Technical Services Librarian

If there is one thing that makes genealogical research most difficult, it is the illegible handwriting that appears in church registers, ships’ manifests, and countless other government records. It makes OCR and manual indexing a difficult task, indeed, not to mention the strain on my eyes trying to read the damned writing. So, to finalize the series on cryptic number codes that have been assisting us in deciphering this chicken scratch, we will move from census records to Pennsylvania Death Certificates.

I give credit to Kim Stahler, our research librarian at The Yocum Library who informed me of a fantastic resource—International Classification of Diseases, transcribed by Wolfbane Cybernetic. This classification is broken down into revisions from 1893 to 2004. 

To explain, I will use two examples: an infantile death, one Julia Falotowitch, who died at six months in 17 October 1920 in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania (Image A); and 84-year-old Elizabeth Stillwagen who died 28 February 1913 in Fayette County, Pennsylvania (Image C). Even with coding, the infantile death presents some challenges, but the Stillwagen example is cut and dried.


Turning to the infant example, the cause of death may be “convulsion,” and the contributory factor is some illegible form of colitis. Penciled in blue and red are those cryptic numbers those government workers just love to use—104-71. To resolve this mystery, I turn to Revision 2 (1909) of the International Classification of Diseases (Image B) since the death was in 1920 (a look at the 1920 revision reveals that the new codes were not yet in effect by October of 1920). 71 is broken down to a and b, and 104 is broken down a to h. It’s nice that the federal employee so kindly omitted the letter break down making my task more exciting. Thus, 71 reveals some form of infantile convulsion, as I guessed, with 104 revealing something similar to colitis—diarrhea or enteritis, an inflammation of the intestines that can cause diarrhea. I had to go to a dictionary for these terms. 

Elizabeth Stillwagon’s case is easier to decode, which still falls in revision 2 (1909). I can make out most of her cause of death as “debility due to . . ..” So, number 154 refers to 154a “Senile dementia” or 154b “Senile decay,” not surprising considering her advanced age.

Sometimes the coding can be confusing, and a few times I have not been able to find a number. What surprises me is that these statistical codes on both U.S. Census records and death certificates were written after the information was recorded. Some poor federal employees had to read this chicken scratch, and we all know of the wonderful penmanship of our family doctors. Until next time, happy searching.