Hi All, The current discussion re 1848-9 reminded me of my own research for end of 18C when I came across an apparent increased number of deaths in local Parish Records. Although not directly linked I thought the following notes from BBC News may be of interest to others who have found similar in their research: When a killer cloud hit Britain By Dan Walker BBC Two's Timewatch (2007) A little over 200 years ago, the eruption of a volcano in Iceland sent a huge toxic cloud across Western Europe. It was the greatest natural disaster to hit modern Britain, killing many thousands - but it has been almost forgotten by history. "Such multitudes are indisposed by fevers in this country that farmers have difficulty gathering their harvest, the labourers having been almost every day carried out of the field incapable of work and many die." So wrote Hertfordshire poet William Cowper in the summer of 1783. Across the country, newspapers reported the presence of a thick smog, and a dull sun, "coloured like it has been soaked in blood". The cloud first reached Britain on the 22 June 1783. In his Naturalist's Journal, Gilbert White reported: "The peculiar haze or smoky fog that prevailed in this island and even beyond its limits was a most extraordinary appearance, unlike anything known within the memory of man." The cloud contained sulphur dioxide and sulphuric acid which attacked the lungs of its victims, choking and killing men and women, rich and poor alike. Panic and fear were widespread - as was death. But just how many died, no-one knew until recently. Dr John Grattan of Aberystwyth University, Wales, has spent a decade scrutinising hundreds of local parish records looking for evidence of Laki's deadly effect. From the fives and tens in each parish, Laki's death toll increases into the hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands. In total, he estimates Laki's killer cloud took the lives of 23,000 British men and women, making it the greatest natural disaster in modern British history. France and other countries were similarly hit. I have reduced above from origional but full content can be read to BBC website and there are several other references to the Laki Volcano on other websites. Between 1783 and 1784 it turned summer into winter followed by one of the harshest winters experienced. Regards, Gilly