> 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 their 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 greatest epidemics] Influenza >1860-1 Pennsylvania Smallpox >1865-73 Philadelphia, NY, Boston, New Orleans} {Smallpox > Baltimore, Memphis, Washington DC} Cholera and 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 (high point year) Influenza Worldwide more people were >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 > > >"Correction: The worst yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans, which >literally >decimated the population, was in 1853, originating on the S.S. Auguste, >arriving on May 12, 1853, from Bremen. Your list gives the date as 1852. >My great-grandmother's family arrived on this ship but immediately went >to >Brewton, AL, and escaped the epidemic...or I would not be here! >Judy Bethea in New Orleans" JUDYBETHEA@aol.com > >"Many thanks to Kathleen for posting the list of past major epidemics. >This >explains the deaths of three of my husband's grandfather's siblings in >Ohio >within 3 months of each other in 1858. Kathy" heweys@prodigy.net > > >==== QUAKER-ROOTS Mailing List ==== >Visit The Quaker Corner - http://www.rootsweb.com/~quakers >