Thursday, May 6, 2010

Death by Childbirth Insanity, Contributory, Insomnia

While working on local cemetery projects this death certificate was used to verify the death date and the surname at death.


Document from Seeking Michigan Death records.  Surname indexed:  Prulipp. Surname in reality:  Prielipp.  Cause of death shown as child birth insanity, contributory cause is shown as insomnia.  As my friend Mary says, "post-partum depression rears its ugly head".

Bertha is buried at the Speigel Lutheran Cemetery, Blissfield Township, Lenawee County, Michgan.  As you can see from the death certificate, this cemetery was also known as the German Lutheran Cemetery.



Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

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5 comments:

Anne Percival Kruszka said...

Poor thing.

Joan said...

wow, that death certificate left a lot of unanswered questions. Up until the early 1900, women in the "western" states, or not living in cities, were so isolated, especially if they were foreign born and without kith and kin. Interesting.

Kathleen Brandt, Professional Genealogist said...

Postpartum depression? Of course when I shared it with my mother, she just said...What mother hasn't suffered from that one? She claims insanity from each of us four children, and claims each of us has nearly killed her at one time or another. She calmly asked me "was the child a teenager...that would explain the insomnia." I think I'll keep my genealogical studies to myself next time.

Tracy said...

That is terribly sad, but could postpartum depression really cause her death? Wouldn't it seem there would be another cause of death and maybe the depression was a contributing factor? In any regards, how sad.

Carol said...

It is an interesting death cert, 100 years ago. I can get the insomnia causing insanity. I am sure that there is more to this story than this small piece of paper tells. So young, to be so tired.