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:
| 1657 | Boston, MA -- Measles |
| 1687 | Boston, MA -- Measles |
| 1690 | New York --Yellow Fever |
| 1713 | Boston, MA -- Measles |
| 1729 | Boston, MA -- Measles |
| 1732-1733 | Worldwide -- Influenza |
| 1738 | South Carolina -- Smallpox |
| 1739-1740 | Boston, MA -- Measles |
| 1747 | CT, NY, PA, SC -- Measles |
| 1759 | North America [areas inhabited predominately 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 County) -- Yellow Fever |
| 1788 | Philadelphia, PA and New York -- Measles |
| 1793 | Vermont [a "putrid" fever] and -- Influenza |
| 1793 | Virginia [killed 500 in 5 counties in 4 weeks] -- Influenza |
| 1793 | Philadelphia, PA [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 County) -- 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, PA -- Typhus |
| 1841 | Nationwide [especially severe in the south] -- Yellow Fever |
| 1847 | New Orleans, LA -- 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 greatest epidemics] -- Influenza |
| 1860-1861 | Pennsylvania -- Smallpox |
| 1865-1873 | Philadelphia, PA New York, Boston, New Orleans -- Smallpox |
| 1865-1873 | Baltimore, MD Memphis, TN Washington DC -- Cholera |
| 1916-1955 | Nationwide -- Polio |
| 1873-1875 | North America and Europe -- Influenza |
| 1878 | New Orleans, LA [last great epidemic] -- Yellow Fever |
| 1885 | Plymouth, PA -- Typhoid |
| 1886 | Jacksonville, FL -- Yellow Fever |
| 1918-1920 | Global 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-present | COVID-19 global pandemic |
| 1833 | Columbus, OH 1834 New York City |
| 1849 | New York |
| 1851 | Coles 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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