A woman researching her family tree discovered something devastating about her great-grandmother who she never knew, and she told Newsweek of the sadness she felt about the way she died.
Stephanie Jebari, 32, and from London, is a private Genealogist and has been researching her own family roots, which on her father's side comes from Cowdenbeath, Scotland.
Not knowing much about her father's side, as her grandmother died when she was a baby and describing herself as "not super close" with that side of the family, she decided to learn more about her ancestry.
She found her great-grandmother, Annie Ogilvie Inglis, born in 1895 -- but in her research, Jebari came across her cause of death in 1945: "Coal gas poisoning. (Suicidal.)"
Jebari shared the story to her TikTok account, @sjebari_x, on December 23, where she posted the wording on the death certificate and wrote: "Researching my family tree and discovering my great-grandmother put her head in the oven on a Tuesday morning in 1945 after everyone had left for work and school."
Annual suicides in England and Wales experienced a dramatic drop by 1975, after the removal of carbon monoxide, or coal gas, from domestic gas supply. Suicide by domestic gas had accounted for more than 40 percent of suicides by 1963, but was essentially eliminated by 1975, according to a report published in journal Crime and Justice: A Review of Research in 1988.
Jebari told Newsweek she had no idea this had happened to her great-grandmother, as she had "never heard it mentioned" within the family.
"I did feel shocked when I first read the death certificate, and sad for her. But my first thought was how horrifying it must have been for whoever found her," and how it must have affected her children.
She pointed out that the overall suicide rate in the United Kingdom dropped when coal gas was "phased out," suggesting the accessibility to it while having depression "increases suicide."
"[It] doesn't allow people to pass through grief, or their troubles, and come out the other side."
Jebari's heartbreaking video had a big effect on TikTokers, racking up almost 130,000 likes and thousands of comments from people sharing their own stories, including one who found that over 15 people in her family tree had taken their own lives.
One shared that she found "melancholia as a cause of death" on an ancestor's death certificate -- an ancient and premodern term relating to depressed mood.
"So sad," one commenter said. "Mental health wasn't recognized."
"God bless your great grandma," another wrote. "I can't imagine how hard it must have been in those days. You simply couldn't say you were struggling."