Epidemic Timeline

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~ Epidemic Timeline ~

In case you ever wondered why a large number of your ancestors disappeared during a certain period in history, the list below might help.  Epidemics have always had a great influence on people by causing a large part of the population to become sick or die.  This, in turn, weakened the community.

Many cases of people disappearing from records can be traced to dying during an epidemic or moving away from the affected area.  Genealogists should look for a large number of people dying in the same year or a large population shift.  Knowing when and where epidemics occurred can help explain changes in your ancestors behavior.

Medical knowledge has grown significantly in the past 50 to 100 years.  Prior to the 1940s - before antibiotics were available - an epidemic could get out of control very quickly and there was little doctors could do about it.  Today, we live in a world that has advanced greatly since that time and has made very specific efforts to cure or control outbreaks of diseases.

Some of the major epidemics in the United States and elsewhere are listed below.  This does not purport to be a complete list of epidemics and pandemics.

Other situations, such as famine or significant changes in weather patterns, also caused a great trouble to our ancestors.  Conditions were difficult in the best of times where bathing was considered unhealthy.  One or two added problems, then, could wreak havoc in the general population.

Epidemics

Period Location Disease Notes
1332 India Bubonic plague Original location of this pandemic.
1346-1348 World wide Bubonic plague  
1348-1350 Europe; Marseille France; Tunis North Africa Bubonic plague Nearly 1/3 the population of Europe succumbed in the first two years.
1349 Norway, Scotland, Prussia, Iceland, and Italy Bubonic plague  
1351 Russia Bubonic plague  
1485 England The Sweat Transported from Rouen by mercenaries recruited to help establish Henry Tudor.  Also called The Swat, New Acquaintance, Stoupe, or Knave know they master.
1508 England The Sweat A fast acting disease that many claimed "they were dancing in court at nine and dead at eleven."  An apparently virile 24 hour disease.
1517 England The Sweat  
1518-1520 Aztec Empire (Mexico) Smallpox Brought to the New World with the Spanish, it aided the conquest since the Aztecs didn't have any immunity.
1527-1530 Inca Empire (Peru) Smallpox  
1539-1540 England Bubonic plague Loughborough England has been cited as an example of the many plague outbreaks throughout this time period.
1550-1566 England Bubonic plague The population of England may have fallen as much as 6% between 1550 and 1560 due, primarily, to the plague.
1551 England The Sweat  
1577 Oxford England goal fever  
1581 York England goal fever  
1590 Lincoln England goal fever  
1615 England a burning fever Little known of this disease except that it coincided with an outbreak of Hot Ague (fever) elsewhere in England and Europe.
1616 New England Smallpox American Indian population is hard hit.
1634-1635 England Smallpox  
1636 Hereford England goal fever  
1638 England unidentified fever  
1649 New England, Boston Smallpox Boston especially hard hit.
1657 Boston Measles  
1660-1661 England unidentified fever  
1666 London England Bubonic Plague Last great outbreak.
1666 New England Smallpox  
1678 New England Smallpox  
1687 Boston Measles  
1690 New York (city) Yellow Fever  
1711 Europe, especially Northern Europe Plague Source: World Almanac 1994
1713 Boston Measles  
1729 Boston Measles  
1732-33 World wide Influenza  
1738 SC Smallpox  
1739-40 Boston Measles  
1747 CT, NY, PA, SC Measles  
1759 North America Measles Mostly areas inhabited by white people
1761 North America & West Indies Influenza  
1772 North America Measles  
1775 North America unknown Especially hard in New England
1775-76 World wide Influenza One of worst flu epidemics
1783 DE (Dover area) Bilious Disorder Extremely fatal
1788 Philadelphia & NY Measles  
1793 VT Influenza and a "putrid fever"  
1793 VA Influenza Killed 500 people in 5 counties in 4 weeks
1793 Philadelphia Yellow Fever Over 4,000 dead
1793 PA (Harrisburg & Middletown) many unexplained deaths
  
1794 Philadelphia Yellow Fever  
1796-97 Philadelphia Yellow Fever  
1798 Philadelphia Yellow Fever One of the worst
1803 New York City Yellow Fever  
1820-23 USA "fever" Starts on the Schuylkill River in PA and spreads across the nation
1831-32 USA Asiatic Cholera Brought by English immigrants
1832 New York & other major cities Cholera Over 3,000 dead in  NYC from July to August! In October over 4,000 died in New Orleans!
1833 Columbus OH Cholera  
1834 New York City Cholera  
1837 Philadelphia Typhus  
1841 USA Yellow Fever Especially severe in the South
1847 New Orleans Yellow Fever  
1847-48 World wide Influenza  
1848-49 North America Cholera  
1849 NYC Cholera Over 4,000 dead in NYC during 1848
1850 USA Yellow Fever  
1850-51 North America Influenza  
1851 Coles Co IL Cholera  
1851 The Great Plains Cholera  
1851 MO Cholera  
1852-53 USA Yellow Fever Nearly 8,000 die in New Orleans during the summer
1854 Corpus Christi TX Yellow Fever  
1855 USA (many parts)  Yellow Fever  
1857-59 World wide Influenza (one of disease's greatest epidemics)  
1860-61 PA Smallpox  
1862-63 Southern California Smallpox Many Native American Indians and Mexicans died; San Diego Historical Society tells the tale of fear.
1865-73 Philadelphia, NY, Boston, New Orleans, Baltimore, Memphis & Washington DC A series of recurring epidemics of Smallpox, Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever and Yellow Fever  
1873 AL Cholera Moved along the railroad lines from Huntsville to Birmingham and Montgomery as these cities industrialized
1867 Indianola, Galveston, Corpus Christi TX; New Orleans LA Yellow Fever Over 3,00 perish in New Orleans alone
1873-75 North America & Europe Influenza  
1878 New Orleans Yellow Fever Last great epidemic of the disease; over 13,000 die in the Mississippi Valley alone
1878 Northern NJ (elsewhere?) Diptheria Occurred in the Spring.
1883 AL Yellow Fever  
1885 Plymouth PA Typhoid  
1886 Jacksonville FL Yellow Fever  
1895 Washington DC Malaria  
1898 Cuba Yellow Fever Spanish-American War; the disease took over 5,000 soldiers (only 968 died in combat!) in just July & August
1916 USA Polio (infantile paralysis) Over 7,000 deaths and more than 27,000 cases reported in America's worst polio epidemic
1918 World wide Spanish Influenza 
(1918 was the high point year)		 More people hospitalized in WWI from Influenza than wounds. US Army training camps became death camps with 80% death rate in some camps.
1941 Australia Rubella (German Measles) This disease was once considered one of the least troublesome childhood diseases.
1952 USA Polio 3,300 dead and over 57,000 cases reported
1962-65 World wide Rubella (German Measles) Affected as many as 12.5 million causing deafness, blindness; approximately 30,000 babies in USA alone due to maternal rubella
1981-Present World wide AIDS/HIV This pandemic is now known to have "jumped" from monkeys to humans several times before but died out; this time, however, transportation and unsafe sexual practices helped the disease to spread 
1989-1991 MD first, later all USA Measles  

 

Other Crisis

Period Location Crisis Notes
1846-1850 Ireland Potato Famine A fungus infected the potato crop, the mainstay of the diet of the lower classes at that time.