Old Illnesses and Modern Equivalents

When doing our genealogy research, whether looking at death certificates, newspaper articles, or other sources, we are often faced with different terminology for things.  Nowhere is that more evident than in medical terminology.

Whether the term is written in an old letter, a newspaper article, or an official document, we are often faced with the challenge of finding out what that term means, for our understanding, but more importantly for documenting the cause of death.

I have put together some of the more common terms, some of which were fatal, some not.

Below are several sources of terminology equivalences that you can use as reference material.

Medical Terminology Resources

• Historical Names of Diseases and Conditions
• Old Time Disease Names
• Old Time Illnesses, Diseases, and Medical Terms
• Old Time Diseases
• Old Disease Names and Their Modern Definition
• Old Disease Names
• Old Time Medical Terms

Download the Quicksheet PDF

To obtain the five-page Quicksheet pdf for easy reference of 150 of these maladies, you can download it by clicking on the Download button below.

For all the previously published Quick Reference Guides, click on QuickSheets. 

Genealogy QuickSheets – Frequently Asked Questions