In Sickness and in Death - researching the ill-health and death of your ancestors (240)
One thing that all but our most recent ancestors have in common is that they are dead. The health problems and deaths of our ancestors are an integral part of our family's history. This five week course will help you to set your ancestors' lives in context by looking at the illnesses, disabilities and diseases that brought about their deaths or had an effect on their well-being. We shall discover a variety of records that might provide information about ill-health or causes of death for specific ancestors, or about prevalent threats to health in the past. The causes, symptoms and treatment of various illnesses will be investigated and significant medical developments of the last 400 years will be explored.
The course has five lessons.
Reading List:
Students often ask us for recommended reading for their courses, that they can look at before the course starts. Here is a suggested book list for this course.
Lesson Headings:
- Records for finding causes of death and instances of ill-health
- Epidemics and Infectious Diseases
- Treatments and Cures
- Effects of Industrialisation and Working Conditions on Health
- Deaths by Other Means
Relevant countries: England, Wales
What to expect:
Each lesson includes lesson notes, activities and forum exercises for students to complete during the week and a one-hour live tutorial (text chat or Zoom) with the tutor and the rest of the class. Times for the tutorials are set at the beginning of each course by the tutor.
Students said:
"All the lessons were very informative using excellent resources and I learnt so many new things. I enjoyed the course exercises which were thought-provoking and inspired me to look at the lives and deaths of my ancestors in a different way. The chat sessions were also inclusive, interesting and fun."
- Tutor: Janet Few
- Length: 5 weeks
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Start date: Mon 12 Oct 2026
£70