POČÁTKY ÚŘEDNÍHO ZAZNAMENÁVÁNÍ PŘÍČIN ÚMRTÍ NA PŘÍKLADU ROKYTNICE V ORLICKÝCH HORÁCH
THE BEGINNINGS OF OFFICIAL RECORDING OF THE CAUSES OF DEATH ON THE EXAMPLE OF ROKYTNICE IN THE EAGLE MOUNTAINS

Author(s): Kateřina Doležalová
Subject(s): Local History / Microhistory, Social history, Health and medicine and law, Demography and human biology, 18th Century, 19th Century
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Rokytnice in the Eagle Mountains; analysis of death records; Rokytnice citizens;
Summary/Abstract: This interdisciplinary study focuses on death causes of citizens of the town of Rokytnice in the Eagle Mountains. It covers the period from the 20 th February 1784, when the Emperor Joseph II ordered local parsons to keep records regarding citizen ´ deaths. In order to put this research into a more detailed context, the study openswith an analysis of the situation of Rokytnice rectory and the level of healthcare in the second half of the 18th century. The key building stone of the study is an analysis of death records in Rokytnice between 1784–1812. Interestingly, the research shows that the record keeping was interrupted in several places due to missing pre-printed death register formulaires. The situation stabilized sometime between May and June 1784. Apparently, the parsons themselves began to manually prepare the formulaires which turned out to be the simplest solution. These manually completed formulaires existed in Rokytnice until 1812, indicating that the government probably had to resign on these pre-printed formulaires at the beginning of their existence. The next chapter, focusing on death causes of Rokytnice citizens with German origin between 1784–1793, reveals interesting observations. The study proves the quality of death diagnosis was rather low and unstable. Interestingly, parsons recorded symptoms rather than diagnosis in multiple cases. Clearly, this represents an obstacle for this research as it is almost impossible to consistently track the death causes due to missing or incomplete statistics..

• Details
• Contents