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If you ever wondered why a large number of your ancestors disappeared during a certain
period in history, this list of epidemics in history 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 Sates are listed below.
A close look at causes of death in Shenandoah County in the year 1918 will reveal that many
deaths were caused by the influenza epidemic -- proving that no one was immune from this deadly
disease. |
| Year | Geographic Area | Disease |
| 1657 | Boston: | Measles |
| 1687 | Boston: | Measles |
| 1690 | New York: | Yellow Fever |
| 1713 | Boston: | Measles |
| 1729 | Boston: | Measles |
| 1732-33 | Worldwide: | Influenza |
| 1738 | South Carolina: | Smallpox |
| 1739-40 | Boston: | Measles |
| 1747 | Conn., NY, PA & SC: | Measles |
| 1759 | North America (areas inhabited by whites) | Influenza |
| 1761 | North America & West Indies: | Influenza |
| 1772 | North America: | Measles |
| 1775 | North America (especially New England): | Epidemic (unknown) |
| 1775-76 | Worldwide: | Influenza (one of the worst flu epidemics) |
| 1788 | Philadelphia and NY: | Measles |
| 1793 | Vermont: | Influenza and a "putrid fever" |
| 1793 | Virginia: | Influenza (killed 500 people in 5 counties in 4 weeks). |
| 1793 | Philadelphia: | Yellow Fever (one of worst) |
| 1783 | Delaware (Dover) | "extremely fatal" bilious disorder |
| 1793 | Pennsylvania (Harrisburg & Middletown) | many unexplained deaths |
| 1794 | Philadelphia: | Yellow fever |
| 1796-97 | Philadelphia: | Yellow fever |
| 1798 | Philadelphia: | Yellow fever (one of worst) |
| 1803 | New York: | Yellow fever |
| 1820-23 | Nationwide: | "fever" (starts on Schuylkill River, PA & spreads |
| 1831-32 | Nationwide: | Asiatic Cholera (brought by English emigrants) |
| 1832 | New York & other major cities: | Cholera |
| 1837 | Philadelphia: | Typhus |
| 1841 | Nationwide: | Yellow fever (especially severe in South) |
| 1847 | New Orleans: | Yellow fever |
| 1847-48 | Worldwide: | Influenza |
| 1848-49 | North America: | Cholera |
| 1850 | Nationwide: | Yellow Fever |
| 1850-51 | North America: | Influenza |
| 1852 | Nationwide: | Yellow fever (New Orleans, 8,000 die in summer) |
| 1855 | Nationwide:(many parts) | Yellow fever |
| 1857-59 | Worldwide: | Influenza (one of disease's greatest epidemics) |
| 1860-61 | Pennsylvania: | Smallpox |
| 1865-73 | Philadelphia, New York, Boston, New Orleans, Baltimore, Memphis & Washington, DC: | A series of recurring epidemics of Smallpox, Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet fever & Yellow fever |
| 1873-75 | North America & Europe: | Influenza |
| 1878 | New Orleans: | Yellow fever (last great epidemic of disease) |
| 1885 | Plymouth, PA: | Typhoid |
| 1886 | Jacksonville, FL: | Yellow fever |
| 1918 | Worldwide: | Influenza (high point year). More people hospitalized in World War I for Influenza than wounds. US Army training camps became death camps, with 80% death rate in some camps. |
