People in our Family Who Died During the Influenza Epidemic

With all of us sheltering in place and living through the greatest Pandemic since the Pandemic of 1918, I was curious as to how many of our ancestors succumbed during the last pandemic:

According to Wikipedia: “The Spanish flu was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic. Lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, it infected 500 million people – about a quarter of the world’s population at the time. ” The disease sickened normally healthy young children and the very elderly, killing them in days.

The problem was that not all of the deaths recorded in the Heycuz database give the cause. So, instead I got a list of all the people who passed away during that time. There are 82,092 people in the database and of those searched, I came up with 265 people who died during that time.

Of course, that’s just one epidemic and there were many in the US. Most of which have been done away with, thankfully, due to improved medical care and vaccinations.

It just gave me a dose of reality. I am hoping with all my heart that all of you come through this strong, safe and healthy.

I love you all,

Your cuz,

April