Historical cause of death 1700s-1800s
What did milk leg mean on a death certificate?
On a death record, milk leg meant a mother's leg swelling hard, white, and painful in the weeks after childbirth, blamed then on turned milk. In modern terms it usually pointed to deep vein thrombosis after childbirth. Fatal cases were usually the clot travelling to the lungs. The milk explanation was wrong but names the term researchers meet. Expect it on records mostly 1700s-1800s.
Also written on records as: phlegmasia alba dolens, white leg.
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Related terms
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FAQs
What is milk leg called today?+
Deep vein thrombosis after childbirth, 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 milk leg written on death records?+
Clerks and doctors also wrote phlegmasia alba dolens and white leg. 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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