The Shuford Funeral Home Records
Janey Deal
Genealogist, North Carolina Room
Most of you who do genealogy research know about the Shuford Funeral Home Records database that is offered on Hickory Public Library’s web page. To get to this database from our Home Page just click on Genealogy and scroll down until you spot it, then click on it. What most of you do not know is the research conducted by Mr. Wayne Robinette on these records. I am pleased to offer this to you now.
These records cover the period from January 1908 to June 1957. There are approximately 4,786 entries.
541 of these were infants or 11% of all deaths recorded. Approximately 172 “child” deaths that if added to infant deaths, accounts for almost 15% of all the deaths recorded within this database.
Of the infant and child deaths, approximately 36 died as a result of train accidents, 51 died as a result of automobile accidents, 26 by drowning, 36 deaths resulted from burning accidents. 3 deaths were attributed to lightening and 27 deaths were the result of gunshot wounds.
Some medical causes of death are as listed: Apoplexy, Dropsy, Bright’s Disease, La grippe, Consumption, Pellagra, Flux, Nephritis, and Colitis.
Names of diseases are listed as they appear in the register along with the number of deaths attributed to them: Appendicitis 17, Cancer 20, Carcinoma 23, Cerebral Hemorrhage 72, Child Birth 11, Coronary Occlusion 63, Coronary Thrombosis 35, Dilation of Heart 19, Diphtheria 20, Heart Attack 10, Heart Block 2, Heart Dilation 2, Heart Disease 27, Heart Dropsy 1, Heart Failure 25, Heart Lesion 22, Heart Trouble 5, Heart Valve problems 1, Influenza 27, Lobar Pneumonia 19, Measles 11, Myocarditis 72, Paralysis 61, Pellagra 23, Pneumonia 286, Tuberculosis 108, Typhoid Fever 43, and Valvular Heart Disease 35.
In studying these figures, one would assume that Pneumonia was a prime cause of death. That may be true, but during 1918 and 1919 the Spanish Influenza was the culprit. Although Influenza itself did not cause the deaths, it caused Pneumonia that did cause deaths mostly in the young as well as the elderly.
Not much concern was given to this new illness, this Influenza, until the deaths of three men in one afternoon in Quincy, Massachusetts. At that point everyone took notice. The disease proceeded to cause death in large numbers throughout the country. At one point Philadelphia was stricken with 289 deaths within 24 hours.
Stop by the North Carolina/Local History Room at Patrick Beaver Memorial Library or check out the library’s website at www.hickorygov.com/library/ for historical tidbits or specific information about your family. I will be happy to help you if you call 304-0500 ext. 7283 or email me at jdeal@ci.hickory.nc.us.
