This page provides a small collection on
information on almost any subject we could find to aid you in your research
Soundex
Epidemics
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
1732-3 Worldwide
Influenza
1738
South Carolina Smallpox
1739-40 Boston
Measles
1747
CT, NY, PA, SC Measles
1759
N. America [areas inhabited by white people] Measles
1761
North America and West Indies Influenza
1772
North America Measles
1775
N. America [especially hard in NE] epidemic Unknown
1775-6
Worldwide [one of the worst epidemics] Influenza
1783
Dover, DE ["extremely fatal"] Bilious Disorder
1788
Philadelphia and New York Measles
1793
Vermont [a "putrid" fever] and Influenza
1793
VA [killed 500 in 5 counties in 4 weeks] Influenza
1793
Philadelphia [one of the worst epidemics] Yellow Fever
1793
Harrisburg, PA [many unexplained deaths]
Unknown
1793
Middletown, PA [many mysterious deaths] Unknown
1794
Philadelphia, PA Yellow Fever
1796-7
Philadelphia, PA Yellow Fever
1798
Philadelphia, PA [one of the worst] Yellow Fever
1803
New York Yellow Fever
1820-3
Nationwide [starts Schuylkill River and spreads] "Fever"
1831-2
Nationwide [brought by English emigrants] Asiatic Cholera
1832
NY City and other major cities Cholera
1837
Philadelphia Typhus
1841
Nationwide [especially severe in the south] Yellow Fever
1847
New Orleans Yellow Fever
1847-8
Worldwide Influenza
1848-9
North America Cholera
1850
Nationwide Yellow Fever
1850-1
North America Influenza
1852
Nationwide [New Orleans-8,000 die in summer] Yellow Fever
1855
Nationwide [many parts] Yellow Fever
1857-9
Worldwide [one of the greeted epidemics]
Influenza
1860-1
Pennsylvania Smallpox
1865-73 Philadelphia,
NY, Boston, New Orleans} {Smallpox Baltimore, Memphis,
Washington DC} {Cholera A series of recurring epidemics of: Typhus,
Typhoid, Scarlet Fever, Yellow Fever)
1873-5
North America and Europe Influenza
1878
New Orleans [last great epidemic] Yellow Fever
1885
Plymouth, PA Typhoid
1886
Jacksonville, FL Yellow Fever
1918
Worldwide [high point yr] more people were {Influenza) hospitalized in WWI from this epidemic
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, The Great Plains, and Missouri
