Historical cause of death 1800s-1900s
What did enteric fever mean on a death certificate?
On a death record, enteric fever meant typhoid, a slow burning fever from contaminated water and food. In modern terms it usually pointed to typhoid fever. Typhoid and typhus were only separated in the mid-1800s, so earlier records mix them under fever, and the older names overlap freely. Expect it on records mostly 1800s-1900s.
Also written on records as: nervous fever, slow fever, low fever.
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Related terms
Browse the full genealogy records glossary for more occupations, causes of death, and legal terms.
FAQs
What is enteric fever called today?+
Typhoid fever, broadly speaking. Doctors of the period diagnosed without laboratory tests, so one label often covered several conditions we would now separate. This page explains historical record language and is not medical advice.
How was enteric fever written on death records?+
Clerks and doctors also wrote nervous fever, slow fever, and low fever. Spelling wandered from register to register, so check every variant before you decide a record is missing or wrong.
Where do these definitions come from?+
They are drawn from period dictionaries, government archive glossaries, and standard genealogy references, cross-checked against each other; provenance is documented with the dataset. Inside AncestorIQ, Deep Research reads the record itself and explains terms like this in context, against your ancestor's own document.
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