Many thanks all for the responses on and off line and for the info and links . It does seem that our ancestors did their best to get organised to deal with and record epidemics even if they could not treat the disease itself. There is no sign on the Ships List of George Robert Fowler having emigrated. I must try other emigration sites and the Navy. He has become more important as his sisters line seems to have died out. Jemima Fowler bc 1854 Ramsgate m Alfred Pay in London in 1877 but it seems that Alfred and their one son Herbert, (believed unmarried) were dead by 1923 and Jemima died back in Thanet in 1930. I will get the death Cert just in case the informant is a relative. Just to complicate things George Robert Fowler shares birth year etc with another George Fowler. Dick Fowler .