Linda, The only thing I can find within the 1870-1880 time period is this (and this is throughout the Internet): 1865-73 Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore, Memphis & Washington, DC: recurring epidemics of smallpox, cholera, typhus, typhoid, scarlet fever & yellow fever 1873-1875 North America & Europe - Influenza 1878 Memphis, TN - Yellow Fever 1878 New Orleans (last great epidemic) - Yellow Fever So for 1877-1878, the increased death rate could have been due to a localized outbreak/recurrence of one of the above diseases. Eyeopener: And that may very well explain why I can't find any information on the ancestry of my brickwall -- Alzada Rosencrans who was born in 1877! Best regards, Jacquelyn (Erhard) Bean jebean@ccape.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "Linda Hatswell" <leshat@yahoo.com> To: <PACENTRE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 7:11 AM Subject: [PACENTRE] Re: PACENTRE-D Digest V02 #35 > Jacquelyn, Thanks for that "Major Epidemics" list. I printed it off > and will keep it for further reference. I was transcribing the > Frenchville Cemetery records and was wondering why so many families > lost 3 or 4 children in 1877-78. This list does not really explain > that. Did someone mention that the other day? Linda