Hi, There are many causes of chronic glomerularnephritis 1. Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis or crescentic glomerulonephritis 2. Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis 3. Membranous nephropathy 4. Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis 5. IgA nephropathy 6. Poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis 7. Lupus nephritis In 1943, the medical research was still under progress and many of the causes were unknown. So your grandmother might have had one of the above causes for a while before she had appendicitis and gall bladder hydrops. Her kidney condition led to complications during surgery and death. It is very difficult to say which of the above conditions she had as in those days kidney biopsy was not done regularly and microscopes were also still under development. The actual pathological picture was still not identifiable.