I just came home from the Lakewood Library, where I was reading a reference book for a few hours -- a diary written by my newly discovered 2nd-cousin-once-removed, Jeannette Stranahan. She was 14 in 1918, lived at W.134 and Detroit -- and kept a short-entry diary from 1918 through 1922. Besides obtaining some birth dates, and seeing a few pictures of my relatives -- I was interested to find references to the Flu epidemic, starting 28 October 1918. "Monday 28 October. Influenza deaths -- 101 in 24 hours in Cleveland. Helped Mother in the morning. . . ." "Tuesday 29 October. 96 died from flu today. Ruth and I worked at the Red Cross House all morning. . . ." "Thursday 31 October. 76 died yesterday and 46 today from influenza. Today is Halloween. . . ." By November, Jeannette is no longer identifying the CAUSE of the deaths -- and none of them strike her personally -- so she continues to record her childhood happenings and happiness, immediately AFTER she mentions the deaths. "Friday 1 November. 53 deaths today. Guess what!! It snowed today. Oh! I am so happy. . . ." "Saturday 2 November. 67 deaths today. Paper says influenza increase is due to Halloween gatherings. . . ." The death toll continues in Jeannette's diary, all as the FIRST entry, in her 3 or 4 usual sentences: Nov. 4 -- 50 deaths. Nov. 5 -- 85 deaths. It is election day. Nov. 6 -- Deaths: 30 Nov. 7 -- Deaths: 50 Then on Monday, November 11, 1918 -- Jeannette tripled the words in her entry for the day -- and recorded the events of the end of World War I, from beating on dishpans to rumors of widespread drinking. "Wednesday, November 13. At last we start back to school. The big influenza epidemic is over. . . ." ****** Now that is all very interesting, because it puts the epidemic in the perspective of war-time. I had thought that it occurred AFTER the war's end -- NOT. The diary was published by Jeannette's daughter, Joan Snider -- I didn't see her mother's married name (I'm still looking for that one -- and don't know if Joan had children, too -- but they seem to have all moved to California). Call letters for the book are RREF 977.132 "The Cleveland Years" by Stranahan, Jeannette. A light blue book, hard-bound, about 10 inches tall -- kept behind the librarians' desks on the 2nd floor in the reference section. And I tell you all this, because the books on those two shelves are NOT in alphabetical order, and it was hard to find! Warm regards, Karen Hiatt Rocky River, OH (suburb of Cleveland) Researching: KING, MORAN, WALSH, HORAN, HOBAN, GIBBONS, HUNTER, HUDSON, GALLAGHER, and many more!