EPIDEMIC DATES

"In case you ever wondered why a large number of your ancestors disappeared

during a certain period in history, this might help. Epidemics have always

had a great influence on people - and thus influencing, as well, the

genealogists trying to trace them. Many cases of people disappearing from

records can be traced to dying during an epidemic or moving away from the

affected area. Some of the major epidemics in the United States are listed

below.

1657 Boston: Measles

1687 Boston: Measles

1690 New York: Yellow Fever

1713 Boston: Measles

1729 Boston: Measles

1732-33 Worldwide: Influenza

1738 South Carolina: Smallpox

1739-40 Boston: Measles

1747 Conn, NY, PA & SC: Measles

1759 North America (areas inhabited by white people): Measles

1761 North America & West Indies: Influenza

1772 North America: Measles

1775 North America (especially hard in New England): Epidemic (unknown)

1775-76 Worldwide: Influenza (one of worst flu epidemics)

1788 Philadelphia & NY: Measles

1793 Vermont: Influenza and a "putrid fever"

1793 Virginia: Influenza (killed 500 people in 5 counties in 4 weeks)

1793 Philadelphia: Yellow Fever (one of worst)

1783* Delaware (Dover) "extremely fatal" bilious disorder

1793 Pennsylvania (Harrisburg & Middletown) many unexplained deaths

1794 Philadelphia: Yellow Fever

1796-97 Philadelphia: Yellow Fever

1798 Philadelphia: Yellow Fever (one of worst)

1803 New York: Yellow Fever

1820-23 Nationwide: "fever" (starts on Schuylkill River, PA & spreads)

1831-32 Nationwide: Asiatic Cholera (brought by English emigrants)

1832 New York & other major cities: Cholera

1837 Philadelphia: Typhus

1841 Nationwide: Yellow Fever (especially severe in South)

1847 New Orleans: Yellow Fever

1847-48 Worldwide: Influenza

1848-49 North America: Cholera

1850 Nationwide: Yellow Fever

1850-51 North America: Influenza

1852 Nationwide: Yellow Fever (New Orleans 8,000 die in summer)

1855 Nationwide (many parts) Yellow Fever

1857-59 Worldwide: Influenza (one of disease's greatest epidemics)

1860-61 Pennsylvania: Smallpox

1865-73 Philadelphia, NY, Boston, New Orleans, Baltimore, Memphis &

Washington

DC: A series of recurring epidemics of Smallpox, Cholera, Typhus,

Typhoid,

Scarlet Fever & Yellow Fever

1873-75 North America & Europe: Influenza

1878 New Orleans: Yellow Fever (last great epidemic of disease)

1885 Plymouth, PA: Typhoid

1886 Jacksonville, FL: Yellow Fever

1918 Worldwide: Influenza (high point year) More people hospitalized in

World War I from Influenza than wounds. US Army training camps became death

camps - with 80% death rate in some camps

"Finally, these specific instances of cholera were mentioned:

1833 Columbus, OH;

1834 New York City;

1849 New York;

1851 Coles Co, IL;

1851 The Great Plains;

1851 Missouri."

Information taken from: Sept-Oct, 1997, Newsletter - Genealogical Society of

Santa Cruz County "Source: Ancestors West, SSBCGS, Vol 20, No l, Fall 1993,

South Bend (IN) Area Genealogical Society via Julie Burnett, Sue in Arizona

and Judy Nordgren SMCAGS