I asked this question before and got NO responses, pro or con. So will try again. Has anyone heard of a particular epidemic or plague in Madison County area in 1885? We had three ancestors in one family all die July - Nov 1885 in or near Venice. Thanx ================================ Don Dickason Searching for family names: Dickason, Hamilton, Cadwal(l)ader, Wisely, Steinberg, Borchward(t), Biesterfeld(t), Blair

If you have the death certs or obits, please ignore this msg. I don't see an epidemic for that time period in this list: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~hornbeck/disease.htm If you have a full name and date and a place of death, the IL Historical Library will search old newspapers (out of staters - $10 fee) for you or you can order the microfilms from the IL Historical Library thru your local public library on interlibrary loan. http://www.state.il.us/hpa/lib/default.htm http://www.state.il.us/hpa/lib/default.htm#Newspapers http://www.state.il.us/hpa/lib/ishlgen.htm#Newspaper%20Search%20Policy http://www.state.il.us/hpa/lib/default.htm#Interlibrary The old newspapers available in libraries or by research at the IL State Historical Library mentioned above are being catalogued online (see what dates are available for each area/town): Click on **NEW**INP Newspaper Database http://www.library.uiuc.edu/techserv/inp/webpages/main.htm then In the form on this page, enter Madison for the county and Illinois for the state and hit SUBMIT http://www.library.uiuc.edu/techserv/inp/mergeddatabase/search_form.asp If there are death certs for your ancestors for 1885, then I just found a cheap way to get a death cert: Enter Madison here: http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/genealogy/iradsrch.html Here is the research policy here (I would call and check the particulars): http://cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/irad/refpol.html http://cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/irad/iradaddr.html#SIU {The above is IRAD - under the auspices of the IL State Archives - IRAD (Illinois Regional Archives Depository) holds local records at regional universities. IRAD for Madison is Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. I would call. But you can visit the library at SIU and they will get the films or old records out for you to view.} They are cheap! You can find those old newspaper films PROBABLY in a local library near the death of the person. Say the person died in Alton, you would probably find the newspaper film for that period in the local Alton Public Library. 1885 - you have a very good chance of finding an obit in an old newspaper. A place search here for Madison Illinois: http://www.familysearch.org/Search/searchcatalog.asp You can order any of these films at your local Latter Day Saints History Center and view them at the church. about $3.75 a film which keeps them at the church for you to view for a few weeks when they are open. Under Vital Records for Madison, the LDS has 21 films on Madison Births, marriages, deaths, 1813-1916 In short, you need to work your way to a death certificate or an obit for your ancestors which will, hopefully, determine what happened to them. Good luck. At 09:12 PM 3/21/2002 -0500, you wrote: >I asked this question before and got NO responses, pro or con. So >will try >again. Has anyone heard of a particular epidemic or plague in >Madison County >area in 1885? We had three ancestors in one family all die July - >Nov 1885 >in or near Venice. > >Thanx > >================================ >Don Dickason >Searching for family names: >Dickason, Hamilton, Cadwal(l)ader, Wisely, >Steinberg, Borchward(t), Biesterfeld(t), Blair > > >==== ILMADISO Mailing List ==== >Visit the Madison County ILGenWeb home page! >http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilmadiso/index.htm