I was doing some research and came across this article. It might account for a great number of deaths which were not due to World War 1, but because of an epidemic - I was not aware it was so catastrophic until I read this. If you have relatives that might have dropped out of the records during 1918, it could be why. _The 1918 Influenza Pandemic_ (http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/uda/)