Epidemics

In case you ever wondered why a large number of your ancestors disappeared during a certain period in history, this might help. Epidemics have always had a great influence on people and thus influencing, as well, the genealogists trying to trace them. Many cases of people disappearing from records can be traced to dying during an epidemic or moving away from the affected area. Some of the major epidemics in the United States are listed below:

 

Date

Area

Epidemic
     
1657 Boston Measles
1687 Boston Measles
1690 New York Yellow Fever
1713 Boston Measles
1729 Boston Measles
1732-1733 Worldwide Influenza
1738 South Carolina Smallpox
1739-1740 Boston Measles
1747 CT,NY,PA,SC Measles
1759 North America [areas inhabited by white people] Measles
1761 North America and West Indies Influenza
1772 North America Measles
1775 North America [especially hard in Northeast] epidemic-Unknown
1775-1776 Worldwide [one of the worst epidemics] Influenza
1783 Dover, DE ["extremely fatal"] Bilious Disorder
1784 New Bern, NC (Craven Co) Yellow Fever
1788 Philadelphia and New York Measles
1793 Vermont [a "putrid" fever] and -- Influenza
1793 Virginia [killed 500 in 5 counties in 4 weeks] Influenza
1793 Philadelphia [one of the worst epidemics] Yellow Fever
1793 Harrisburg, PA [many unexplained deaths] Unknown
1793 Middletown, PA [many mysterious deaths] Unknown
1794 Philadelphia, PA Yellow Fever
1796-1797 Philadelphia, PA Yellow Fever
1798 Philadelphia, PA [one of the worst] Yellow Fever
1798 New Bern, NC (Craven Co) Yellow Fever
1803 New York Yellow Fever
1820-1823 Nationwide [starts-Schuylkill River and spreads] "Fever"
1831-1832 Nationwide [brought by English emigrants] Asiatic Cholera
1832 New York City and other major cities Cholera
1837 Philadelphia Typhus
1841 Nationwide [especially severe in the south] Yellow Fever
1847 New Orleans Yellow Fever
1847-1848 Worldwide Influenza
1848-1849 North America Cholera
1850 Nationwide Yellow Fever
1850-1851 North America Influenza
1852 Nationwide [New Orleans-8,000 die in summer] Yellow Fever
1855 Nationwide [many parts] Yellow Fever
1857-1859 Worldwide [one of the greated epidemics] Influenza
1860-1861 Pennsylvania Smallpox
1865-1873 Philadelphia, New York, Boston, New Orleans Smallpox
1865-1873 Baltimore, Memphis, Washington DC Cholera - A series of recurring epidemics of: Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever, Yellow Fever
1873-1875 North America and Europe Influenza
1878 New Orleans [last great epidemic] Yellow Fever
1833 Columbus, OH Cholera
1834 New York City Cholera
1849 New York Cholera
1851 Coles Co., Illinois, The Great Plains, and Missouri Cholera
1885 Plymouth, PA Typhoid
1886 Jacksonville, FL Yellow Fever
1918 Worldwide [high point year] Influenza

More people were hospitalized in WWI from this epidemic than wounds. US Army
training camps became death camps, with 80% death rate in some camps!