Genealogical research often involves a detailed search for people who disappear from local records or migrate to parts unknown. This list of mostly American epidemics may help in finding the cause.
| 1657 | Boston, MA | Measles |
| 1687 | Boston, MA | Measles |
| 1690 | New York | Yellow Fever |
| 1713 | Boston, MA | Measles |
| 1729 | Boston, MA | Measles |
| 1732-3 | Worldwide | Influenza |
| 1738 | South Carolina | Smallpox |
| 1739-40 | Boston, MA | Measles |
| 1747 | CT, NY, PA, SC | Measles |
| 1759 | N. America | Measles: areas inhabited by white people |
| 1761 | N. America and West Indies | Influenza |
| 1772 | N. America | Measles |
| 1775 | N. America | Unknown epidemic: especially hard in NE |
| 1775-6 | Worldwide | Influenza: one of the worst epidemics |
| 1780 | Boston, MA | Yellow Fever: the first outbreak in the US, more than 400 deaths |
| 1783 | Dover, DE | “Extremely fatal” bilious disorder |
| 1788 | Philadelphia and New York | Measles |
| 1793 | Vermont | A “putrid” fever and Influenza |
| 1793 | Virginia | Influenza: killed 500 in 5 counties in 4 weeks |
| 1793 | Philadelphia, PA | Yellow Fever: 4,544 deaths |
| 1793 | Harrisburg, PA | Many unexplained deaths |
| 1793 | Middletown, PA | Many unexplained deaths |
| 1794 | Philadelphia, PA | Yellow Fever |
| 1794 | Baltimore, MD | Yellow Fever: 360 deaths |
| 1796 | New Orleans, LA | Yellow Fever |
| 1796-7 | Philadelphia, PA | Yellow Fever |
| 1797 | Baltimore, MD | Yellow Fever: 154 deaths |
| 1798 | Philadelphia, PA | Yellow Fever: 3,645 death |
| 1798 | New York | Yellow Fever: 2,086 deaths |
| 1798 | Boston, MA | Yellow Fever: 145 deaths |
| 1800 | Baltimore, MD | Yellow Fever: 1,187 deaths |
| 1803 | New York | Yellow Fever |
| 1817 | Charleston, SC | Yellow Fever: 274 deaths |
| 1819 | New Orleans, LA | Yellow Fever: 3,000 deaths |
| 1819 | Mobile, AL | Yellow Fever: 294 deaths |
| 1819 | Baltimore, MD | Yellow Fever: 250 deaths |
| 1819 | Natchez, Miss | Yellow Fever: 250 deaths |
| 1819 | Baton Rouge, LA | Yellow Fever: 200 deaths |
| 1819 | Charleston, SC | Yellow Fever: 180 deaths |
| 1819 | Savannah, GA | Yellow Fever: 150 deaths |
| 1819 | Boston, MA | Yellow Fever: 32 deaths |
| 1820-3 | Nationwide | “Fever” – started Schuylkill River and spread |
| 1820 | New York, NY | Yellow Fever: 150 deaths |
| 1820 | Baltimore, MD | Yellow Fever: 85 deaths |
| 1820 | Philadelphia, PA | Yellow Fever: 45 deaths |
| 1820 | Middleton, CT | Yellow Fever: 28 deaths |
| 1821 | Norfolk, VA | Yellow Fever: 160 deaths |
| 1821 | Wilmington, NC | Yellow Fever: 55 deaths |
| 1822 | New York, NY | Yellow Fever: 37 deaths |
| 1822 | New Orleans, LA | Yellow Fever |
| 1831-2 | Nationwide | Asiatic Cholera: brought by English emigrants |
| 1832 | NY City and other major cities | Cholera |
| 1832 | New Orleans, LA | Asiatic Cholera: over 1,000 deaths |
| 1832 | Ayrshire towns of Stevenston, Dalry, and Kilbride | Cholera |
| 1833 | Columbus, OH | Cholera |
| 1834 | New York City | Cholera |
| 1837 | Philadelphia, PA | Typhus |
| 1837 | Great Plains | Smallpox |
| 1841 | Nationwide | Yellow Fever: especially severe in the south |
| 1847 | New Orleans, LA | Yellow Fever: 3,359 deaths |
| 1847-8 | Worldwide | Influenza |
| 1848-9 | North America | Cholera |
| 1849 | New York | Cholera |
| 1849-50 | New Orleans, LA | Cholera: 3,000 deaths |
| 1850 | Nationwide | Yellow Fever |
| 1850 | Alabama, New York | Cholera |
| 1850-1 | North America | Influenza |
| 1851 | Coles Co., IL, The Great Plains, and Missouri | Cholera |
| 1852 | Nationwide | Yellow Fever |
| 1853 | New Orleans, LA | Yellow Fever: 8,101 deaths |
| 1853 | Mobile, AL | Yellow Fever: 1,191 deaths |
| 1853 | Vicksburg, MS | Yellow Fever: 500 deaths |
| 1853 | Lake Providence, LA. | Yellow Fever: 165 deaths |
| 1853 | Philadelphia, PA | Yellow Fever: 128 deaths |
| 1853 | Jackson, MS | Yellow Fever: 112 deaths |
| 1854 | New Orleans, LA | Yellow Fever: 2,423 deaths |
| 1855 | Nationwide | Yellow Fever |
| 1855 | Norfolk and Portsmouth, VA | Yellow Fever: 4,602 deaths |
| 1855 | New Orleans, LA | Yellow Fever: 2,670 deaths |
| 1857-9 | Worldwide | Influenza: one of the greatest epidemics |
| 1858 | New Orleans, LA | Yellow Fever: 4,845 deaths |
| 1860-1 | Pennsylvania | Smallpox |
| 1865-73 | Philadelphia, NY, Boston, New Orleans, Baltimore, Memphis, Washington DC | Smallpox, a series of recurring epidemics of Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever, Yellow Fever |
| 1867 | Galveston, TX | Yellow Fever: 1,150 deaths |
| 1867 | New Orleans, LA | Yellow Fever: 3,107 deaths |
| 1873 | Shreveport, LA | Yellow Fever: 759 deaths |
| 1873 | Memphis, TN | Yellow Fever: 200 deaths |
| 1873-5 | N. America and Europe | Influenza |
| 1878 | Mississippi | Yellow Fever: 3,165 deaths |
| 1878 | Memphis, TN | Yellow Fever: 4,200 deaths |
| 1878 | New Orleans, LA | Yellow Fever: 3,977 deaths |
| 1878 | Nationally | Yellow Fever: an estimated 74,000 cases resulting in 15,934 deaths |
| 1879 | Memphis, TN | Yellow Fever |
| 1885 | Chicago, IL | water-borne disease |
| 1885 | Plymouth, PA | Typhoid |
| 1886 | Jacksonville, FL | Yellow Fever |
| 1891-2 | Chicago, IL | Influenza |
| 1900 | Galveston, TX | Cholera |
| 1901 | New York | Influenza |
| 1902 | Alaska | Measles |
| 1904 | Vermont | Polio |
| 1905 | New Orleans, LA | Yellow Fever: last US outbreak |
| 1914 | University of Illinois | Scarlet Fever |
| 1916 | New York City | Polio |
| 1916 | Midwest | Influenza – Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and other midwestern cities |
| 1918 | Worldwide | [high point yr] Influenza: more people were hospitalized in WWI from this epidemic than wounds. US Army training camps became death camps, with an 80% death rate in some camps |
| 1949 | Nationwide | Polio |
| 2019-? | Worldwide | coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): over 185,000,000 cases worldwide causing 4,000,000 deaths (as of July 2021). |
- 1853 Yellow Fever Deaths in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- 1853 Yellow Fever Deaths in LaFourche Parish, Louisiana
- 1853 Yellow Fever Deaths in Thibodaux, Louisiana
- 1873 Cholera Deaths in Knoxville, Tennessee
- 1873 Yellow Fever Deaths in Memphis, Tennessee
- 1873 Yellow Fever Deaths in Memphis, Tennessee
- 1873 Yellow Fever Deaths in Memphis, Tennessee
- 1878 Yellow Fever Deaths in Holly Springs, Mississippi
- 1879 Yellow Fever Deaths in Memphis, Tennessee, August 24th – 30th
- 1879 Yellow Fever Deaths in Memphis, Tennessee, August 9th – 11th
- 1879 Yellow Fever Deaths in Memphis, Tennessee, September 14th-20th
My great, great, grandparents & a son died in the 1853 yellow fever epidemic (Lake Providence, LA). I would like more information if available. They were: Joseph K. Merry, Susan G. Saltenberer and Benjamin Merry. JKM & SGSM were b. in NJ.
Looking for the kind of fever that happened in WV In 1886 that killed 4of my ancestors in September and October. Any help would be appreciated.
Need to know of possibility of epidemic in late 1904 or early 1905. My grandfather Augustus Dolphous Wood (AKA Gussie) died January 1905 of unknown cause, possibly of some unknown disease.
There were so many death’s in a lot of my families in the 1880’s so I googles Epidemics of the 1880’s and….
From what I could find by Google and searching Morris Co. NJ in the US Mortality Census there were quite a few contagious pandemics going around. You had the forth Major Outbreak of Cholera, 1863-1879 and the fifth one from 1881-1896; Consumption and also Diphtheria. So I found out why one of my family lost 10 of their 12 children. They must have spread to one another one of the above and that’s why they lost so many family members in the 1880’s.
Actually I lost more family members in the pandemics of the 1880’s than any other time period.
Karen, my family lost their 5 youngest children between September 30 and November 3 of 1881. Any info you could share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Great Site! Very informative, thank you for your hard work!
EPIDEMIC 1900 Boston killed my father’s 3 sister WILLIAM M Nelson 1900 named after deceased brother 1898
My great grandmother writes in a memoir that ~1880 in Iowa there was an epidemic of “Chintybugh.” Do you have any idea what she might have been trying to spell? She mentions wheat crop failures at the same time.
There were many epidemics sweeping the nation in 1914. I am trying to narrow it down for Modoc County, CA. I have found bubonic plague, cholera, typhoid, menengitis, small pox and scarlet fever, measles and diphtheria. I have ruled out yellow fever, influenza and malaria and probably bubonic plague. We lost four children to one of these in January of 1914 within days of each other. Ages 14, 12, 7 and newborn. I don’t think it was bubonic plague as it happened later in the year in CA and was more near LA and SFO areas where the shipping industry is located. Any assistance or ideas is appreciated. I am leaning towards scarlet fever, cholera or typhoid.
Thanks for the info! I was trying to find why several members of a family died in 1880 Louisiana and although nothing specific was listed for that year, it did give me a good idea as to what happened! Great work!!
My ancestor died 1799 in Maryland of yellow fever so the old family story goes. I see from your data that yellow fever was prevalent in Cecil County, MD at this time. Thanks.
I am looking for information on an epidemic – possibly diphtheria -in Carleton, Monroe Co. Michigan around 1896. This would have involved quarantines and removal of the deceased by medical personal.
I think your best source will be the annual reports published by The Michigan State Board of Health. These include figures for deaths by various diseases as well as tracing the cause and transmission of the infection.