Hi, Karen Carpenter wrote: > I hope this isn't a repeat question. (I'm new to the list.) My > gggrandfather's death record lists his cause of death as koltuny which > translates to tangles. What does that mean? The reference books tell you _koltun_ means "trichoma" or "plica polonica," an illness connected with matted hair. I didn't know till just now that English has a term for it: "Polish plait." See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_plait I found this by going to the Polish Wikipedia site and searching for _koltun_ (with a slash through the L). Here's the Polish page: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C5%82tun At the left are links to similar pages on the Wikipedia sites for other languages, one of which is English. And that led me to the article on "Polish plait." This is always worth trying if you're looking for an unfamiliar term. The Polish Wikipedia may not have anything on it; or if it does, there may be no corresponding page in English, or the connection between the two may be erroneous. Also, you have to get the Polish spelling of the word right, including the diacritical marks. But a search of the Polish Wikipedia can prove very helpful. Sometimes, a Google search will lead you to a Polish Wikipedia page, and that may enable you to bypass the need for inputting Polish characters with diacriticals. I must admit, I've never quite understood how a hairstyle or even a disease of the hair could be fatal. But I guess anything that allows inflammation or infection can lead to death. Often, these causes of death are not very scientific. The person filling out the record frequently had no medical training. He just wrote down whatever was the most prominent symptom, even if it was only indirectly related to the cause of death -- or, in some cases, had nothing to do with the death. But if an otherwise healthy-looking person died, and the only thing you could find wrong was a massive tangle of hair with infection, I guess _koltun_ or the Latin word, _plica_, could seem like the right thing to record. I do know from my experience, you run into _koltun_ and _plica_ as causes of death far more often than you'd expect. Anyway, I hope that clarifies things for you! Fred Hoffman Co-Author, _In Their Words ... Vol. 1: Polish_ www.fredhoff.com

Hi Fred, Count on you to find the most obscure information. Fascinating! I'm glad to be living in the 21st C. I'd hate to find this as the cause of death of a relative, but really glad it was determined not to be congenital. Dorothy On Nov 16, 2010, at 10:21 AM, Fred Hoffman wrote: Hi, Karen Carpenter wrote: > I hope this isn't a repeat question. (I'm new to the list.) My > gggrandfather's death record lists his cause of death as koltuny which > translates to tangles. What does that mean? The reference books tell you _koltun_ means "trichoma" or "plica polonica," an illness connected with matted hair. I didn't know till just now that English has a term for it: "Polish plait." See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_plait I found this by going to the Polish Wikipedia site and searching for _koltun_ (with a slash through the L). Here's the Polish page: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C5%82tun At the left are links to similar pages on the Wikipedia sites for other languages, one of which is English. And that led me to the article on "Polish plait." This is always worth trying if you're looking for an unfamiliar term. The Polish Wikipedia may not have anything on it; or if it does, there may be no corresponding page in English, or the connection between the two may be erroneous. Also, you have to get the Polish spelling of the word right, including the diacritical marks. But a search of the Polish Wikipedia can prove very helpful. Sometimes, a Google search will lead you to a Polish Wikipedia page, and that may enable you to bypass the need for inputting Polish characters with diacriticals. I must admit, I've never quite understood how a hairstyle or even a disease of the hair could be fatal. But I guess anything that allows inflammation or infection can lead to death. Often, these causes of death are not very scientific. The person filling out the record frequently had no medical training. He just wrote down whatever was the most prominent symptom, even if it was only indirectly related to the cause of death -- or, in some cases, had nothing to do with the death. But if an otherwise healthy-looking person died, and the only thing you could find wrong was a massive tangle of hair with infection, I guess _koltun_ or the Latin word, _plica_, could seem like the right thing to record. I do know from my experience, you run into _koltun_ and _plica_ as causes of death far more often than you'd expect. Anyway, I hope that clarifies things for you! Fred Hoffman Co-Author, _In Their Words ... Vol. 1: Polish_ www.fredhoff.com ********************************* Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at [email protected] ---------------------------------- Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the list as long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this list: researching our Polish roots. ---------------------------------- Browse the list's archives here: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots Search the list's archives here: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Michele, I could not bear the thought of your having possibly missed this one! Bron. On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 4:21 PM, Fred Hoffman <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > Karen Carpenter wrote: > > > I hope this isn't a repeat question. (I'm new to the list.) My > > gggrandfather's death record lists his cause of death as koltuny which > > translates to tangles. What does that mean? > > The reference books tell you _koltun_ means "trichoma" or "plica polonica," > an illness connected with matted hair. I didn't know till just now that > English has a term for it: "Polish plait." See here: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_plait > > I found this by going to the Polish Wikipedia site and searching for > _koltun_ (with a slash through the L). Here's the Polish page: > > http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C5%82tun > > At the left are links to similar pages on the Wikipedia sites for other > languages, one of which is English. And that led me to the article on > "Polish plait." > > This is always worth trying if you're looking for an unfamiliar term. The > Polish Wikipedia may not have anything on it; or if it does, there may be > no > corresponding page in English, or the connection between the two may be > erroneous. Also, you have to get the Polish spelling of the word right, > including the diacritical marks. But a search of the Polish Wikipedia can > prove very helpful. Sometimes, a Google search will lead you to a Polish > Wikipedia page, and that may enable you to bypass the need for inputting > Polish characters with diacriticals. > > I must admit, I've never quite understood how a hairstyle or even a disease > of the hair could be fatal. But I guess anything that allows inflammation > or > infection can lead to death. Often, these causes of death are not very > scientific. The person filling out the record frequently had no medical > training. He just wrote down whatever was the most prominent symptom, even > if it was only indirectly related to the cause of death -- or, in some > cases, had nothing to do with the death. But if an otherwise > healthy-looking > person died, and the only thing you could find wrong was a massive tangle > of > hair with infection, I guess _koltun_ or the Latin word, _plica_, could > seem > like the right thing to record. I do know from my experience, you run into > _koltun_ and _plica_ as causes of death far more often than you'd expect. > > Anyway, I hope that clarifies things for you! > > Fred Hoffman > Co-Author, _In Their Words ... Vol. 1: Polish_ > www.fredhoff.com http://www.nuvoforheadlice.com/Plica.htm Interesting, lengthy overview of plica polonica and its manifestation over the centuries in different countries. Barbara Proko