Odd cause of death

[DyeReynolds_1]

I ordered a death record for my 3x great grandmother who died at the age of 40 and I'm kinda stumped on her cause of death. It states that she died of 'internal wounds' and 'exhaustion' and the cause of death on her death record seems to be a lot more vague than the causes of death I've seen on records of other relative.
Typically on the death records I've bought for other relatives it'll include the main symptom that lead to their death, and the condition that was the direct cause of it. I'm wondering if the fact that there's no exact condition linked to her cause of death, if that means that she died from some sort of trauma inflicted on her by another person, or is it just a Victorian era term to describe a illness I don't know anything about?

Has anyone else encountered this sort of cause of death on any of your ancestors or does anyone know what this cause of death could mean? I thought the death record stood out because her husband wasn't the informant, (which is something I typically see on death records of my deceased married female relatives) instead it was a random widowed woman who lived down the street who from what I know has no familial relation to her.

[jorose]

One thing might be an ectopic pregnancy.  They are a leading cause of maternal death and if it occured very early in pregnancy she may not have known she was pregnant.  Miscarriages could also have caused heavy bleeding.

Other causes for a similar set of symptoms are possible, though; some sort of GI bleed, some types of cancer, ovarian cyst bursting, etc.  Probably the vagueness was down to they just didn't know what was wrong - no obvious cause, no external wounds, etc.

You might want to search for the woman down the street to see if she was ever recorded as a midwife, nurse, etc.  Perhaps she cared for your ancestor before her death.

[teragram31510]

I agree with jorose that some form of pregnancy problem could have been the cause. Or an actual childbirth problem that caused the "internal wounds" and "exhaustion". And agree that the informant may have been a "midwife" if it wasn't the husband. Do you know if there was a baby, live or dead? Buried with her/on the same day or thereabouts? Or perhaps it died in the womb and was never born, accounting for the hours to become exhausted.

[Pennines]

I am just wondering if it was a Doctor or a Coroner who compiled the death certificate.

By writing 'Internal Wounds' - either this was assumed because she was bleeding (as per a miscarriage) - OR an inquest had been performed to discover that she DID have internal wounds.

It's not something I have ever seen before on a death certificate.

[Annie65115]

Have you checked the newspapers of the time to see if there's any record of an inquest?

[Jebber]

Possibly a cover up for an illegal abortion. You do not say how many children she had given birth to or how long it was after she last gave birth.

[DyeReynolds_1]

I agree with jorose that some form of pregnancy problem could have been the cause. Or an actual childbirth problem that caused the "internal wounds" and "exhaustion". And agree that the informant may have been a "midwife" if it wasn't the husband. Do you know if there was a baby, live or dead? Buried with her/on the same day or thereabouts? Or perhaps it died in the womb and was never born, accounting for the hours to become exhausted.

The informants occupation in the 1871 census (she died in 1867) was a charwoman which according to google was a house cleaner that went door to door so it seems unlikely that to me that she would've been midwife. I did check for every single burial that was made around the time she had died and there were no babies or anyone with a similar surname other than herself who were buried on the days or the month that she died. I like your theory about the pregnancy though after looking into it myself. Given the fact that she was at an age where she would be at a higher risk of ectopic pregnancies or abnormalities in an era where there was a lack of medical care I can definitely see that being the case.

[DyeReynolds_1]

Possibly a cover up for an illegal abortion. You do not say how many children she had given birth to or how long it was after she last gave birth.

She had 7 children, two of whom who died in childhood. The last child she had was born in 1860 7 years before she died.

The Illegal abortion theory was actually one of the first things that came to my mind just because of the vague description of her cause of death, because of the fact that she died at an address who I believe she had no familial relations living at, wasn't her home, wasn't a hospital or maternity home, and because of the mysterious informant who (according to census records) was not a midwife at all but instead a charwoman or a house cleaner of some type.

I'm only hesitant to accept this theory because she was a married woman who had been married for many years, and from what I know abortions in this era were mostly sought out by unmarried women with a lack of means or support.