Historical cause of death 1700s-1800s
What did lung fever mean on a death certificate?
On a death record, lung fever meant pneumonia, an acute fever seated in the lungs, and it filled winter burial registers. In modern terms it usually pointed to pneumonia. Winter fever is the same disease in the southern United States records. Watch the season on the certificate; it usually fits. Expect it on records mostly 1700s-1800s.
Also written on records as: winter fever, peripneumony, inflammation of the lungs.
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Related terms
Browse the full genealogy records glossary for more occupations, causes of death, and legal terms.
FAQs
What is lung fever called today?+
Pneumonia, 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 lung fever written on death records?+
Clerks and doctors also wrote winter fever, peripneumony, and inflammation of the lungs. 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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