QUOTE: > > I received this on another list - very informative! But always in the > case of someone else's research - you need to check out these dates to > your own satisfaction. > > 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