DEATH CERTIFICATE-Accidental Poisioning.....

[joette]

I have posted this on other thread but thought I would try here for help. Deep breath its a long one.
Alexander Waddell was my GGGrandfather. He was married to Ann Graham & they had several children including Jean,John(born 1856 Dollar Clack.) &
William born 1859 Dollar. Ann dies of Typhus in 1862- informant Alexander Husband present.
He dies when John is 10-12.This gave us date to search for Death.My Mother & Aunt spent time in 1969 at St.Andrews House researching their tree & were duely shown Alexanders Death Certificate. On it was stated that he died due to Accidentall Poisioning by the Chemist. This was somewhere in Edinburgh.My Grandfather was aware of cause of Death as his Father was forced to become a boy soldier on being orphaned.Grandpa was ALWAYS super cautious about anything that came from the Chemist in case "We ended up like his Grandpa".
In 2002 my sister & I repeated the procedure at New Register House there we viewed with some difficulty the Death Certificate( it was missing his Christian name on the paper.) Again cause of death the poisining.
Now fast forward to 2005 I am now online & keen to replace my "misplaced" original documentation. I look for Alexanders death hoping to find his parents name on Death Certificate to trace further back on that line.No sign of it on any of the Alexander Waddells After some lovely assistance from the kind people on TalkingScots I find it- Alexander Waddell Dollar Clackmannanshire 467/00 0020 1867.The informant is a neighbour gives his age estimated at 44 widower of Ann Graham,cause of Death Paralysis 12 hours!!!!. No Mother name either.
Now we might have got the location wrong but not the cause of Death.I have trawled through almost all the Alexander Waddell Deaths for that period but none with widower of Ann Graham & accidental Poisioning as cause. There is no indication of a RCE as I thought maybe the Death was originally thought to be a stroke & then further details gave out the truth but where the heck can we find it ?Would there have been some sort of investigation at the time? I am supposing the older children had left home by then & John & william would have been too young to Register the Death(12 & 9)

[Tracey]

Would there have been some sort of investigation at the time? :

Maybe. My gt gt grandfather b in Scotland worked in England was an alcoholic and taking opium to ease the pain of withdrawal but it seems he was addicted to this also. The last prescription he got from the doctor he was instructed on how to take it but he ignored those instructions and went straight to a bar poured it in his drink and drunk it. He collapsed on his way home and died, this was 1877. There was an inquest, details of which are included in one of the newspaper notice of his death. One says died from Opium poisoning, the other, overdose. The cause of death on the certificate says 1/2 oz of Laudanum taken while suffering from Delirium Tremens to fit him for work. Lived 3 1/2 hours. The newspaper was an English one but Moray sent me a copy of it. So there may be an inquest out there somewhere for yours.

[DavidWW]

The chances that there two families where an Alexander WADDEL[L] married to an Ann GRAHAM are very low, especially given the already kown connection to Dollar through the births of John and William.

In other words, my conclusion is that the Dollar death register entry is most probably the correct one, but I can't explain the absence of info on poisoning unless the cause of death as shown was due to accidental poisoning, "Paralysis 12 hours" ........

David