Thank you Judy, Grace and Lisa for your interesting information. Dave Witthans ========================== Hi Dave - go over to the historical tribune site, http://tinyurl.com/9yoed and search for influenza in the 1900-1919 decade. There are 197 pages of hits if you click the box to include the obituaries. - including this one from 1918-09-23 Chicago Tribune (IL) 100 SAILORS AT GREAT LAKES DIE OF INFLUENZA 4,500 Cases Now Under Treatment, 1,000 Serious. Lisa ========================== I remember my mother telling me that there were coffins in most of the homes in the area she lived in Chicago--Roosevelt Rd near Kilbourn Av. In getting death certificates while doing genealogy for my husbands family, the flu really hit the farms areas also. Grace ========================== I don't recall reading statistics, but my grandmother died in October 1918, my gr uncle lost his wife and two small daughters between September and December. This in addition to another 15-20 in my family tree alone. Judie Mason Chicago ========================== ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Witthans To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 7:49 PM Subject: [IL-CHICAGO] Flu Pandemic of 1918 A relative kept a log of the dates of birth and death of her friends and family. When documenting these events we found that there were many entries for those who passed away in their early years around 1918 to 1920. So we decided that it was probably due to the big horrible flu epidemic of that era. This web-site implies that 5 of every 100 Americans died in October of 1918 from the pandemic: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/influenza/maps/index.html Was Chicago affected this much? ( A sidebar is that Alaska's Iditarod Race was created in memory of the heroics from this horrible bird caused influenza. A good site to visit for the current threat is http://www.pandemicflu.gov/planguide/checklist.html )