Anonymous wrote:Justice Scalia died suddenly. Probably not suicide.

He was old, not a young person like the ones referred to.

To answer the question at hand, generations ago, "died suddenly" in an obit was commonly interpreted as a suicide, yes.

No, the last two people I know who "died suddenly," one had a heart issue since birth and died in his sleep, the other one had a stroke. Sometimes the family doesn't want to share the details, and that's their right.

Even death certificates are not accurate. I have a close family member whose cause of death is completely inaccurate. I think the attending physician, who in this case never treated the patient, just makes stuff up.

Anonymous wrote:Epilepsy
Overdose
Diabetes
Aneurysm
So many reasons for sudden death

And 100 years ago, people died "suddenly" from meningitis, cancer, measles, etc. Suddenly meant 48 hours.

Murder!

Conversely, sometimes suicides occur after long struggles with depression and other mental illness and are not described as a sudden death.

Justice Scalia died suddenly. Probably not suicide.

During my grandparent's time (I am in my 40s, my grandmother died in the early 70s) her religion/culture viewed suicide as, in short, destined for hell.

I heard one of her friend's "fell off the roof" and she "fell asleep in the car," (the garage door was closed).
When I tried to talk about these instances, I clearly opened up some wounds.

What I have done with this info is been very proactive about depression in my parenting (and my own life).

When I see "suddenly died" I assume that the family was not expecting it, so they are more shocked and less prepared that I was when my parent died of "a long term illness".

I start baking.

A lot of death certificates are on line. Check familysearch.com or maybe register for ancestry.com. I've been able to see death certificates for family members up to the early 60s, so you might be able to find the ones you're looking for there.