>I, too, lost relatives in 1917-8 Flu epidemic in NC. My grandmother and my >uncle (age 19) died. It was a severe strain and they had very little >medication. I may be wrong, but I believe that this strain was brought to >the US by the returning GI's from WWI. >> >Good Searching - Good Finding - Good Luck! >David Huffines >Searching Hofheintz/Huffines/Huffhines/Hoffein/et.al. >and Williamson, Wakefield, Underwood, Paisley, Sikes, Lipscomb When I'm not doing genealogy, sometimes I teach microbiology. Last spring I did a freshman seminar called Microbial Disease and Human Society, which covered everything from the Black Death to AIDS and a lot more, including the 1918 flu. David's right, GIs returning from Europe played a substantial role in spreading the flu throughout the U.S. and Canada. Recent thinking however is that the epidemic actually began in the U.S., not Spain as was originally supposed, was carried over to Europe by a few troop ships, and then spread there before it returned to the U.S. in full force. I turned up a couple of interesting web sites for my students that you might enjoy also: http://www.webcom.com/~fuzzy/flu.html the story of Poker Alice in Deadwood SD; I actually learned about this one through a genealogy connection! http://www.seattletimes.com/education/centennial/march/photo/flu.html a photograph of people in Seattle in 1918, wearing masks to protect against flu exposure I also strongly recommend the following book: Collier, Richard, The Plague of the Spanish Lady: the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919. Macmillan, 1974. This is very readable, and fascinating. Elizabeth Harris chlamy@acpub.duke.edu