Historical cause of death 1700s-1800s
What did flooding mean on a death certificate?
On a death record, flooding meant uncontrollable uterine bleeding, in childbirth, after it, or in miscarriage. In modern terms it usually pointed to obstetric hemorrhage. A flooding death with no surviving baptism usually means mother and child were lost together; check burials for an unnamed infant. Expect it on records mostly 1700s-1800s.
Also written on records as: uterine hemorrhage, died of a flooding.
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Related terms
Browse the full genealogy records glossary for more occupations, causes of death, and legal terms.
FAQs
What is flooding called today?+
Obstetric hemorrhage, 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 flooding written on death records?+
Clerks and doctors also wrote uterine hemorrhage and died of a flooding. 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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