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Epidemics in US History

"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:

1657Boston, MA -- Measles
1687Boston, MA -- Measles
1690New York --Yellow Fever
1713Boston, MA -- Measles
1729Boston, MA -- Measles
1732-1733Worldwide -- Influenza
1738South Carolina -- Smallpox
1739-1740Boston, MA -- Measles
1747CT, NY, PA, SC -- Measles
1759North America [areas inhabited predominately by white people] --Measles
1761North America and West Indies -- Influenza
1772North America -- Measles
1775North America [especially hard in Northeast] epidemic -- Unknown
1775-1776Worldwide [one of the worst epidemics] -- Influenza
1783Dover, DE ["extremely fatal"] -- Bilious Disorder
1784New Bern, NC (Craven County) -- Yellow Fever
1788Philadelphia, PA and New York -- Measles
1793Vermont [a "putrid" fever] and -- Influenza
1793Virginia [killed 500 in 5 counties in 4 weeks] -- Influenza
1793Philadelphia, PA [one of the worst epidemics] -- Yellow Fever
1793Harrisburg, PA [many unexplained deaths] -- Unknown
1793Middletown, PA [many mysterious deaths] -- Unknown
1794Philadelphia, PA -- Yellow Fever
1796-1797Philadelphia, PA -- Yellow Fever
1798Philadelphia, PA [one of the worst] -- Yellow Fever
1798New Bern, NC (Craven County) -- Yellow Fever
1803New York -- Yellow Fever
1820-1823Nationwide [starts-Schuylkill River and spreads] -- "Fever"
1831-1832Nationwide [brought by English emigrants] -- Asiatic Cholera
1832New York City and other major cities -- Cholera
1837Philadelphia, PA -- Typhus
1841Nationwide [especially severe in the south] -- Yellow Fever
1847New Orleans, LA -- Yellow Fever
1847-1848Worldwide -- Influenza
1848-1849North America -- Cholera
1850Nationwide -- Yellow Fever
1850-1851North America -- Influenza
1852Nationwide [New Orleans-8,000 die in summer] -- Yellow Fever
1855Nationwide [many parts] -- Yellow Fever
1857-1859Worldwide [one of the greatest epidemics] -- Influenza
1860-1861Pennsylvania -- Smallpox
1865-1873Philadelphia, PA New York, Boston, New Orleans -- Smallpox
1865-1873Baltimore, MD Memphis, TN Washington DC -- Cholera
1916-1955Nationwide -- Polio

A series of recurring epidemics and pandemics

1873-1875North America and Europe -- Influenza
1878New Orleans, LA [last great epidemic] -- Yellow Fever
1885Plymouth, PA -- Typhoid
1886Jacksonville, FL -- Yellow Fever
1918-1920Global Influenza AKA Spanish Flu pandemic
More people were hospitalized in WWI from this epidemic than from wounds. US Army training camps became death camps, with 80% death rate in some camps
2019-presentCOVID-19 global pandemic

Finally, these specific instances of Cholera were mentioned:

1833Columbus, OH 1834 New York City
1849New York
1851Coles County, Illinois, The Great Plains, and Missouri

Sources: Sept-Oct, 1997, Newsletter of Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County, which reprinted an article from Ancestors West, SSBCGS, Vol 20, No l, Fall 1993, South Bend (IN) Area Genealogical Society. Changes have been made since by The USGenWeb Project.

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Page content reviewed and/or updated by the Advisory Board 2022 Dec


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