The 1880 census indicates whether a person is ill at the time. I know of a family whose 6 yr. old daughter is shown on the census as having diptheria. Although her death was not recorded in the court house, I found her parents adopted a child a couple years later and there was no older child still in the family so I have to assume she died. Another family I know of lost two of their four children in the early 1880's within a few days of ea. other due to diptheria as I found newspaper articles. Nothing recorded in the court house about the deaths. A short newspaper article expressed the parents thanks for the help they'd received from the community. I've not had much luck in locating deaths in the Iowa court houses until later than 1880 as many were not recorded in the death records for about 5-10 yrs. after that even though they were supposed to be reported. My gr grandfather died in February 1882 in Iowa and there is no record about him except for a small newspaper account. The Iowa State Historical Library in Des Moines has a wonderful collection of old newspapers. juanita > > Most Iowa counties were keeping death records by 1880. (Many even > earlier.) I have not researched in Pottawattamie Co., but if it is > like others, at the courthouse, there will be a "death record" > recorded, and those usually list the cause of death. Also, you can > then request the "death certificate" which may have more information > on it. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mark Hadlund" <KRAM95@cox.net> > > >I learned that five of my Rief family members, the mother and the > >four youngest children, all had died in 1885. That many deaths in so > >short of a time had me wondering. Some research and a weather forcast > >lead me to a blizzard that happened in Iowa, including Pottawattamie > >County. There were a few record lows with temps more than twenty > >degrees below zero. > > > > A small notice in The Daily Nonpareil said that two of his girls > > died of an illness and their mother was ailing as well. > > Unfortunatley about a weeks worth of the February paper is missing. > > I'll need to do some further research to see what else, if anything, > > can be found. > > > > Mark