(At right:) A record of death, July 5, 1934, Coroner's Register. Courtesy of the San Francisco History Center
Besides tombstones and funeral home records, the San Francisco History Center has coroner's records from 1902-1956. The Coroner, which today is replaced by the Medical Examiner (the office is much the same, except that the Medical Examiner must be a doctor, whereas the Coroner wasn't required to be one), was responsible for investigating and recording deaths due to accident, suicide, homicide, or other "unnatural" causes, as well as deaths unattended by a physician. The records include hundreds of large volumes containing 2-page death reports describing individual persons and the circumstances under which they died. There are also necropsy (aka autopsy) reports beginning in 1928.
If you're interested in seeing what these records look like, visit us on the 6th floor during open hours. We've pulled two sample volumes from October 1929. I chose that date because that's when the Stock Market Crash of 1929 happened, and I had been wondering whether suicides had gone up that month. Apparently not-- or not yet-- although one of the entries does list financial distress as a possible factor in the person's death. To request other volumes or specific reports, please have the month and year of death handy, and allow 24 hours turnaround time for your request to be filled.
If you want a good brief history of the Coroner's Office in San Francisco that you can borrow with your library card, check out Terence Allen's San Francisco Coroner's Office: A History, 1850-1980.
If you want a good brief history of the Coroner's Office in San Francisco that you can borrow with your library card, check out Terence Allen's San Francisco Coroner's Office: A History, 1850-1980.
creepy delights!
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I'll bet my grandfather is in the 1949 one. He was a John Doe for several days until they traced the news clipping about my mother found in his pocket.
ReplyDeleteToday with the help of technologies death ratio has reduced a bit. A couple of decades ago, people died of some diseases that are now curable. Check out the kidney transplant overseas. Before transplantation operations people died due to organ failure but that stops right there. With the help of technology, doctors can now save more lives.
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