Epidemics

From: Sept-Oct 1997 Newsletter, Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County Source: Ancestors West, SSBCGS, Vol. 20, No. 1, Fall 1993, South Bend IN Area Genealogical Society "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
1732-1733 - worldwide -- Influenza
1738 - So. Carolina --Smallpox
1739-1740 - Boston -- Measles
1747 - CT, NY, PA, SC -- Measles
1759 - North America (areas inhabited by white people) -- Measles
1761 - North America and West Indies -- Influenza
1772 - North America -- Measles
1775 - North America, especially hard in the Northeast -- epidemic (unknown)
1775-1775 - Worldwide -- Influenza (one of the worst epidemics)
1783 - Dover, DE --Bilious Disorder ("extremely fatal")
1784 - New Bern, NC (Craven Co.) -- Yellow Fever
1788 - Philadelphia and New York -- Measles
1793 - Vermont -- Influenza and "a putrid fever"
          Virginia Influenza (killed 500 in 5 counties in 4 weeks)
         Philadelphia -- Yellow Fever (one of the worst epidemics)
          Harrisburg, PA -- (many unexplained deaths) -- unknown
      Middletown, PA -- (many unexplained deaths) -- unknown
1794 - Philadelphia -- Yellow Fever
1796-1797 - Philadelphia -- Yellow Fever
1798 - Philadelphia - (one of the worst) -- Yellow Fever
         New Bern, NC (Craven Co.) -- Yellow Fever
1803 - New York -- Yellow Fever
1820-1823 - Nationwide (starts Schuylkill River and spreads)  "Fever"
1831-1832 - Nationwide (brought by English immigrants) -- Asiatic Cholera
1832 - New York City and other major cities --Cholera
1837 - Philadelphia -- Typhus
1841 - Nationwide (especially in the south) -- Yellow Fever
1847 - New Orleans -- Yellow Fever
1847-1847 - Worldwide -- Influenza
1848-1849 - North America -- Cholera
1850 - Nationwide -- Yellow Fever
1859-1851 - North America -- Influenza
1852 - Nationwide (New Orleans, 8,000 die in summer) --Yellow Fever
1855 - Nationwide -- Yellow Fever
1857-1859 Worldwide -- Influenza (one of the greatest epidemics)
1860-1861 - Pennsylvania -- Smallpox
1865-1873 -- Philadelphia, New York, Boston, New Orleans -- Smallpox
                -- Baltimore, Memphis, Washington DC -- Cholera
      (a series of recurring epidemics of Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever, Yellow Fever)
1873-1875 -- North America and Europe -- Influenza
1878 - New Orleans (last great epidemic) -- Yellow Fever
1885 - Plymouth, PA --Typhoid
1886 - Jacksonville, FL -- Influenza
1918 - Worldwide (high point year) -- Influenza
More people were hospitalized in WW1 from this epidemic than wounds.  US Army training camps became death camps, with 80% death rate in some camps.
Specific instances of cholera: 1833, Columbus, OH 1834,  New York City 1849, New York 1851, Coles Co., IL, The Great Plains and Missouri



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