Deeds Office Research Articles

William Wilde in the West of Ireland.

It is widely believed that Sir William Wilde's forebears were in Ireland for just two or three generations. This belief stems from a number of short biographies of Wilde which were published during his lifetime. These biographies gave different versions of the origin of the Wilde family and appear to have been generated by the creative imagination of Lady Jane Wilde or, as she was better known by her nom de plume, Speranza. She was equally imaginative in creating narratives about her own family background and in one she claimed descent from the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. So it was not a great challenge for her to invent biographies of her husband which she deemed suitable for a knight living at the prestigious address of 1 Merrion Square, leading many to believe that William and his son Oscar were more English than Irish. It was also important for Speranza to distance Sir William from any connection which the Wilde family might have had with trade. In this paper published and unpublished material are used, together with a careful examination of family deeds in the Registry of Deeds office, to elucidate the real roots of the Wilde family in Dublin and in the West of Ireland.

Autopsy-Proven Venous Thromboembolism (VTE): Incidence and Characteristics of Patients Correlated with Clinical Management Prior to Death

Introduction: Venous thromboembolism (VTE), defined as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE), or both, is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients, with PE ranking among the most frequent undiagnosed acute diseases in medical practice (Adv Orthop,2010;2(1):8–14).Methods: Durham County, NC, has a population of ~280,000 individuals and is served by three hospitals, Duke University Medical Center (DUMC) and Duke Regional Hospital (DRH) that share an electronic medical record, and the Durham Veterans’ Administration Medical Center (VAMC). Autopsy service is performed primarily at DUMC and, much less frequently, at the Durham VAMC. We performed a retrospective review of all autopsies performed at DUMC during a two year period (April 1st 2012 through March 31st 2014). Individuals living outside of Durham County were excluded. We also excluded autopsies performed on fetuses and neonates less than one month of age, as well as autopsies that were limited to examination of the brain only. Autopsies at DUMC are generally limited to the chest, abdomen and pelvis, and the limbs are typically not examined. VTE identified at autopsy, therefore, included PE and DVT involving the inferior vena cava and the abdominal, iliac, brachiocephalic, subclavian, and/or internal jugular veins. For Durham county patients with autopsy-proven VTE, we reviewed the medical records for the clinical characteristics of these individuals, including whether VTE was clinically suspected (or known) prior to death. To evaluate the total number of deaths in Durham county residents within the same time period, we obtained data from the Durham county Register of Deeds office and the NC Vital Records office.Results: During the two year study period, a total of 677 autopsies were performed at DUMC as shown in the figure below. [Display omitted] Of the 97 autopsies on patients from Durham county, VTE was diagnosed at autopsy in 19 cases (19.6%). The mean age of patients diagnosed with VTE at autopsy was 54 years (range 21-82 years). Ten were male (53%). Characteristics of the events are summarized in the table below. Table 1Type of eventHospitalization at the time of death.Thromboprophylaxis prior to death.VTE diagnosed antemortemSubsegmental PE only (n=6) Segmental PE only (n=2) Both (n=4)5 2 33 2 21 0 0DVT* (n=6)531PE and DVT* (n=1)100Total (n=19)16102* DVT involved the following veins: hepatic vein (2), left common iliac (1), internal jugular vein (1), inferior vena cava (1), “central” venous (1), and the mesenteric and pelvic veins (1)Slightly more than half the patients who were hospitalized at the time of death were receiving some type of thromboprophylaxis, and two of the patients had been diagnosed with VTE prior to their death.According to the pathologist’s report, PE was the direct cause of death in 4 cases. All patients had one or more risk factors for VTE as shown in table below. Table 2Predisposing FactorOccurrence, n (%)Hospitalization16 (84%)Age >4012 (63%)Surgery6 (32%)Obesity6 (32%)Cancer6 (32%)Diabetes mellitus5 (26%)Central venous catheter3 (16%)Prior known VTE1 (5%)One of the limitations of this analysis is the small number of autopsies that are currently performed in the US. During the two year period, a total of 3918 residents of Durham county died within the state of NC. The rate of autopsy for Durham County residents who died during the study period, therefore, was only 2.5% of all deaths during this period.Conclusions: The frequency of VTE identified at autopsy in our retrospective study is 19.6% (19 of 97). The majority of these patients were not suspected to have VTE prior to death. Although most were hospitalized, more than a third were not receiving thromboprophylaxis at the time of death. Hospitalization is a common risk factor for VTE, and VTE remains an important cause of death in hospitalized patients. DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

“Upon God Knows What Ground”: African American Slavery in Western Pennsylvania

Between 1790 and 1820 western Pennsylvania changed from a struggling backcountry to a burgeoning industrial power at the epicenter of trade and commerce—one in which the “invisible hands” of African American laborers were the principal driving force. The process by which they negotiated the complex, always ambiguous, legal terrain between slavery and freedom is readily visible in recently unearthed slave manuscripts from the Allegheny County Recorder of Deeds Office. Aged, brittle, yet as vivid as the day they were initially penned, these documents are now in the hands of Samuel Black, curator of African American col-lections at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh.

Land Tenure in South Africa's Communal Areas: A Case Study of the Arabie-Olifants Scheme

This paper deals with the evolution of the land tenure system, and the prospects for tenure reform in one of South Africa's black communal areas. It is based on a case study of the Arabie-Olifants irrigation scheme, located approximately 20 kilometres south of Lebowakgomo in the former ‘homeland’ of Lebowa, now part of Northern Province. Research activities included a review of the literature on land tenure in South Africa, empirical analysis of official records from the Arabie-Olifants scheme and the Deeds Office, Pretoria, and interviews with chiefs, members of Tribal Authorities and Transitional Local Councils, government officials, farmers' representatives and individual plot-holders on the Arabie-Olifants scheme. Fieldwork was conducted during the period February to May 1999.

Commercial Forestry on Signal Hill and Lion's Head, Cape Town

SYNOPSIS The history of afforestation with alien tree species on Signal Hill and Lion's Head, which form part of the Table Mountain Nature Reserve, Cape Town, was reconstructed. The natural vegetation comprises mostly West Coast Renosterveld which is considered the most reduced and threatened vegetation type in the Fynbos Biome. Historical photographs and maps, documents from the Deeds Office and the Mayoral Minutes of the Cape Town City Council (CCC) dating from 1881 in combination with aerial photographs dating from 1926 to 1989 were studied. Discussions were also held with knowledgeable officials of the CCC. Commercial afforestation with various pine and eucalypt species, undertaken by the CCC since 1894, was unsuccessful. During summer hot, dry winds prevail which are ideal for fires. Alien species proved to be no more fire-resistant than the natural vegetation. The public consequently demanded the preservation and rehabilitation of the indigenous flora as well as access for recreational purposes. The...

School District 37: Prairie Community

The Story of a Kansas Homestead. Written by John Ise, then professor of economics at the University of Kansas, the book was a history-presented in fictional form-of the hardships of pioneering on the Great Plains in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It was also the history of John Ise's parents, Henry and Rosie, a remarkable couple of German ancestry who homesteaded near the little prairie town of Downs in 1873, where, in addition to their crops of corn and wheat, they raised eleven children and educated all of them in the community's one-room schoolhouse. Interestingly, nine of those children trained in such humble surroundings went on to graduate from college, and some of them eventually earned advanced degrees.' Ise did not neglect the country school in his roundup of prairie life, but considering its importance in the life of the Ise children, he wrote less about it than he might have, and what he wrote was not extraordinarily perceptive. Nonetheless, his book did tell much about the shared life of the people in District 37. From what he wrote from the school district records located in the Kansas State Historical Society and in the Register of Deeds Office in the county seat of Osborne County and from newspapers and other school records, it is possible to piece together the important role the one-room school and the school district played in creating a community on the sod-house frontier in the years following the Civil War.

From the Begistry of Deeds Office, Dublin, 12-378-5475

From the Begistry of Deeds Office, Dublin, 12-378-5475 Get access Notes and Queries, Volume 180, Issue 7, 15 February 1941, Pages 113–114, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/180.7.113b Published: 15 February 1941