Help with Reading Cursive Death Certificate

Question

Hello all,

I have been attempting to interpret the cause of death on this death certificate for Thomas Henry Lang:

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/142143251?cid=mem_copy

I have also posted it on FindAGrave:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/197667105/thomas-henry-lang

Neither me nor any of my family members can figure out anything past "He was" on the other conditions line so I'm posting it here in hopes to get some help from somebody with better eyes than I. A context clue that may help: His WW2 draft states he was a patient at Bryce Hospital and was furloughed July 9, 1943. His death was inside his home though.

Answer 1

To me it looks like "He was [subject] to E[---]t c[---].

It's poorly written but the second-to-last word looks like it's written with an uppercase cursive E. The second letter of that same word looks like a cursive f or ph to me.

At the bottom he says he was injured on the farm, so I'm guessing this is an injury sustained while working with animals or farm equipment. I'm tempted to say he was crushed by something.

Comments

Could the "subject to" line be a very badly written "chest compression"?

The immediate cause of death seems to be "crush" or "crushed" something.

---

Are you sure that word is "farm", Jessica, not perhaps "home"? An obituary says he died at his residence in the Wells avenue addition. Today at least Google Maps does show Wells Avenue Huntsville as a residential area.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73345008/obituary-for-henry-thomas-lang-aged-32/

I cannot read the words Marie asked about, nor even the immediate cause of death: what do people make of that?

Edited to add: My comment overlapped in time with Melanie's.

---

I think the "injury" occurred on the farm, but he survived long enough to die in the home.

---

I can't read the cause either. I wondered whether the last word of the "other conditions" could be 'convulsions'; I couldn't convince myself. If the previous word is 'epileptic' that would be more likely, but ... I'm dubious. 

Have you tried getting the cemetery records? In my experience, they sometimes include cause of death--certainly not always, but often enough to make it worth trying. Getting the funeral home records might be worthwhile too--it seems to still exist (https://www.laughlinservice.com/).

In case you don't have this, his funeral notice is published here:

'Services Held Today For Henry Thomas Lang', The Huntsville Times, Wednesday 18 August 1943, p.3, col.1; image copy, Newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73345008/obituary-for-henry-thomas-lang-aged-32/ : accessed 19 August 2022).

It doesn't mention his cause of death. It does say he was buried the day after he died. Do you know if that was normal for Huntsville then? 

---

Considering how BAD that handwriting is, and accepting that many of those people used a type of "shorthand" that made sense to other medical people, I could, with the correct twist of the mouth and placement of tongue between the teeth, see it as "epileptic convulsion". (Maybe I also need to slightly unfocus the eyes the way you need to to see those "jump out at you 3-d book images.)

---

To me it looks like he was subject to heart condition.
Cause of death Crushed something starting with m or w and has a b or l in it.

Pretty poor handwriting, your guess is as good as any ones.

---

Thank you, everyone, for all of your answers! I will contact both the cemetery and funeral home, hopefully they might have some further insight. I'll update this question and post another comment whenever they reply.

Also, to Harry, yes. A person being buried a day or two days after their death seemed to be pretty common in Huntsville and the surrounding areas, especially among more lower class families.

If I don't squint and push my head up close to my computer screen, I can see the possibility of "He was subject to epileptic convulsion." But, like Melanie, I'm on the fence about it too. For now, I'll just leave the cause of death up to interpretation when I write his bio and include everyone's brainstorming in the research notes section.

Thanks again everyone! This means a lot to me.