It seems lots of people died of illnesses in Iowa, and not from just smallpox alone. Some could have frozen to death of course. In my research I found several places where ancestors just dissapeared between census, or two or more family members died in the same week or month, so I started paying more attention to diseases that killed yours and mine. A new section of my county website deals with this subject. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iadesmoi/Illness/illnesses.htm I hope this may help someone. donkelly ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Hadlund" <KRAM95@cox.net> To: <IOWA@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2009 11:30 PM Subject: [IOWA] Iowa Winters >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 > _____________________________________________ > > For additional information concerning how the list > works, how to sub and unsub and list rules, visit > http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~richard/ialist/ > _____________________________________________ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > IOWA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message