Notes from 1935-1940

Background:

1933-1938

There is a gap covering a period of approximately five and a half years in the records.  Box number 308 contains records ending with #220, January 1933 (193301_220).  There is a record of destruction in the form of a label on box number 308 indicating records #221 January through December were destroyed on 4/14/82.  There is no box numbered 309.  Box number 310 begins with record #73 for June, 1938 (193806_73).  The records between 1933 and June 1938 are missing and are presumed to have been destroyed in 1982 prior to the transfer of this collection to the Archives Service Center.

1938-1939

I noticed that in this time people who commit suicide have been claiming different reasons than before.  For approximately nine of every ten suicides, the family claimed that the deceased was depressed because he or she was unable to find employment.  Zach had found on the Historic Pittsburgh website that there was actually an 18% increase in job growth in 1938.  I think that the reason why these people could not find work was because there was an increase in demand for skilled laborers or educated individuals.  This would mean that anyone who was older and was laid off during the Depression could probably not find a job while the economy was rebuilding because there were younger more educated workers to replace them. 

AL 19 Oct 2007

During these years I found a number of deaths by Coronary Occlusion. A coronary occlusion is partial occlusion or blockage occurs because of the gradual build up of plaques rich in cholesterol, which may be further aggravated by the formation of a blood clot on these plaques. Coronary occlusions may also occur less commonly due to temporary spasms of the muscles in the artery wall or as the result of inflammation in the coronary artery wall. It eventually causes the heart to work harder and eventually causes a heart attack or angina of effort.

AS 23 Oct 2007

It seems that heart failure and related deaths dominate the kind of deaths in these two years.  Murders, suicides, and accidents seemed to have dropped in their amount.

1940

Through the 50 files that I have gone through so far, about one fifth of them have given the cause of Death as a "Coronary Occlusion." this seems to be a very general term to me and could have been used when the Deputy Coroner was not really interested in what the true cause of death was. I need to do more reasearch on coronary occlusions and find out if this could be the case.

AFS May 23, 2008