One thing that all but our most recent ancestors have in common is that they are dead. Particularly when we first start out on our genealogical journey, we all have those ancestors hanging from our family tree who are 327 and we have not yet killed them off, in the nicest possible way. The temptation is to focus on births/baptisms and marriages, as they are more likely to progress our tree but it is vital to seek out deaths/burials as well. It is not unusual to find people constructing a tree based on someone who died at the age of two, so could not possibly have married great-granny. It is not just about when they died though; what about the how and the why. Do you know how your ancestors died, or what conditions were prevalent at the time of their deaths, or how their occupation might have impacted on their health? Do you know your byssinosis from your convulsive ergotism and which ancestor would be more likely to suffer from which?

The health problems and deaths of our ancestors are an integral part of our family’s history. Sickness was a very real fear for those who lived in past centuries, diagnosis was not straightforward and cures and preventatives could be ‘unusual’ at best and useless at worst. Illness and disease was such a fundamental part of our ancestors’ lives that we owe it to them to investigate this aspect further, if we want those ancestors to be more than just a two-dimensional name on a page. I do have a particular interest in this topic and several of my presentations cover aspects of the history of medicine. A number of you will have heard tales of my ancestors who habitually fell off (or into) things.

This is the time of year when I revisit this topic, as I am about to present my five-week online course for Pharos Teaching and Tutoring In Sickness and in Death researching the ill-health and death of your ancestors. If you think this post is some kind of convoluted advertisement, you’d be right but it is also because I feel that this is a very important but often neglected, topic. The course will help you to set your ancestors’ lives in context by looking at the illnesses, disabilities and diseases that brought about their deaths or had an effect on their well-being. It covers a variety of records that might provide information about ill-health, or causes of death for specific ancestors, or about prevalent threats to health in the past. The causes, symptoms and treatment of various illnesses are investigated in all their gory and fascinating detail and significant medical developments of the last 400 years are explored. If any of my writer friends have persevered this far, it could be great for historical novelists too. The first lesson begins on 13 August, so if you do want to fill one of the remaining spaces, don’t delay. It can all be done in your own time, from the comfort of your own keyboard, so there are no excuses. The only part that is time-prescribed is the weekly online ‘chat’. I should add that no webcams are used in this process, all you need to do is to type your comments, so you are free to join in wearing your pyjamas. The sources that are referred to are from English records, as they are what I have access to but the principals apply world-wide and you are encouraged to relate what you have learned to your own ancestors.

Advert over – normal service will resume shortly and yes, I know I have left you hanging in Cornwall – one more post to get us home soon, I promise.