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Epidemics are of particular interest to genealogists because they may explain why ancestors died in great numbers or left an area for no apparent reason. The following table lists a number of epidemics by year, and includes location and the disease involved.

1332 India Bubonic Plague original location of this pandemic.

1347-1350 Europe Bubonic Plague – Nearly 1/3 the population of Europe succumbed in the first two years.

1349 Norway, Scotland, Prussia, Iceland, Italy – Bubonic Plague

1351 Russia – Bubonic Plague

1485 England – The Sweat. Also called The Swat, New Acquaintance, Stoupe, or “Knave know thy master”.

1508 England – The Sweat. A fast acting disease, “they were dancing in court at nine and dead at eleven.”

1517 England The Sweat

1518-1520 Mexico: Aztec Empire – Smallpox. Brought to South America by the Spanish

1527-1530 Peru: Inca Empire – Smallpox

1539-1540 England – Bubonic Plague

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 England: Oxford – Goal fever

1581 England: York – Goal fever

1590 England: Lincoln – Goal fever

1615 England – Unknown burning fever

1616 USA: New England – Smallpox. Mostly affects Native Americans

1634-1635 England – Smallpox

1636 England: Hereford – Goal fever

1638 England – Unidentified fever

1647 USA: Massachusetts – Yellow Fever

1649 USA: New England: Massachusetts and Boston – Smallpox. Boston especially hard hit.

1657 USA:Massachusetts and Boston – Measles

1660-1661 England – Unidentified fever

1666 England:London – Bubonic Plague. Last great outbreak.

1666 USA: New England – Smallpox

1678 USA: New England – Smallpox

1687 USA: Massachusetts and Boston – Measles

1690 USA: New York/New York City – Yellow Fever

1711 Europe, especially Northern Europe – Plague

1713 USA: Massachusetts: Boston – Measles

1729 USA: Massachusetts: Boston – >Measles

1732-1733 Worldwide – Influenza

1736 USA: Massachusetts: Essex Co.- Throat Distemper. Nine hundred (900) children died within 6 months in Essex County alone. Probably diphtheria.

1738 USA: South Carolina – Smallpox br>

1739-1740 USA: Massachusetts: Boston – Measles

1747 USA: Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina – Measles

1759 North America – Measles

1761 North America, West Indies – Influenza

1770-1772 Balkans – Plague

1772 North America – Measles

1775 North America – Unknown. Especially in New England.

1775-1776 Worldwide – Influenza

1783 USA:Delaware: Dover – Bilious Fever

1788 USA: Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, New York: New York City – Measles

1793 USA: Pennsylvania: Harrisburg – Unknown

1793 USA: Pennsylvania: Middletown – Unknown

1793 USA:Vermont – Influenza. Killed 500 people in 5 counties in 4 weeks.

1793 USA: Virginia – Influenza

1793-1794 USA: Pennsylvania: Philadelphia – Yellow Fever. Over 4,000 dead.

1796-1798 USA: Pennsylvania: Philadelphia – Yellow Fever

1803 USA: New York/New York City – Yellow Fever

1820-1823 USA – Fever. Starts on the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania and spreads across the nation.

1820-1823 USA – Fever

1831-1832 USA Asiatic – Cholera. Brought by English immigrants

1832 Ayrshire towns of Stevenston, Dalry, and Kilbride – Cholera

1832 USA: New York/New York City – Cholera. More than 3,000 dead

1832 USA: Louisiana: New Orleans – Cholera – 4,340 dead

1832-1833 USA: Missouri: St.Louis – Cholera.

1833 USA: Ohio: Columbus – Cholera

1834 USA: New York/New York City – Cholera

1835 USA: Missouri: St. Louis – Cholera

1837 USA: Pennsylvania: Philadelphia – Typhus

1841 USA – Yellow Fever

1846-1850 Ireland – Potato Famine. A fungus called “the Blight” infected the potato crop

1847 USA: Louisiana: New Orleans – Yellow Fever

1847-1848 Worldwide – Influenza

1848-1849 North America – Cholera

1848-1849 USA: New York/New York City – Cholera. More than 5,000 dead

1850 USA – Yellow Fever

1850-1851 North America – Influenza

1851 USA: Great Plains – Cholera
1851 USA: Illinois: Coles County – Cholera

1851 USA: Missouri – Cholera

1852 USA: Louisiana: New Orleans – Yellow Fever. 8,000 dead

1854 USA: Texas: Corpus Christi – Yellow Fever

1855 USA – Yellow Fever

1857-1859 Worldwide – Influenza

1860-1861 USA: Pennsylvania – Smallpox

1862-1863 USA:Southern California – Smallpox. Many Native Americans and Mexicans died

1865-1873 USA: Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, New York, Massachusetts: Boston, Louisiana: New Orleans – Smallpox

1866 USA: Maryland: Baltimore, Tennessee: Memphis, Washington DC – Cholera

1867 USA: Texas: Indianola, Galveston, and Corpus Christi – Yellow Fever

1867 USA: Louisiana: New Orleans – Yellow Fever. 3,093 dead

1873 USA: Alabama – Cholera. Moved along the railroad lines from Huntsville to Birmingham and Montgomery as these cities industrialized

1873-1875 North America and Europe – Influenza

1878 USA: Northern New Jersey, possibly elsewhere – Diphtheria. Occurred in the Spring

1878 USA: Southern states – Yellow Fever. Over 13,000 dead in lower Missisippi Valley

1883 USA: Alabama – Yellow Fever

1885 USA: Pennsylvania: Plymouth – Typhoid

1886 USA: Florida: Jacksonville – Yellow Fever

1895 USA: Washington DC – Malaria

1898 Cuba – Yellow Fever. Spanish-American War; the disease took over 5,000 soldiers in July and August, only 968 died in combat

1900 USA: Texas: Galveston – Cholera

1905 New Orleans, LA – Yellow Fever

1916 USA – Polio. Over 7,000 deaths, 27,363 reported cases, America’s worst polio epidemic

1918 USA – Spanish Influenza. Over 500,000 dead, worst single U.S. epidemic

1918-1919 Worldwide – Influenza

1941 Australia – Rubella. This disease was once considered one of the least troublesome childhood diseases

1949 USA – Polio. 2,720 dead, 42,173 reported cases

1952 USA – Polio. 3,300 dead and over 57,000 cases reported

1962-1965 Worldwide – Rubella. Affected as many as 12.5 million causing deafness, blindness; approximately 30,000 babies in USA alone due to maternal Rubella

1981-Present – Worldwide AIDS/HIV. U.S. AIDS cases: 886,575; total estimated AIDS deaths: 501,669 (Centers for
Disease Control); 2003 total world AIDS cases: 38 million; total world AIDS deaths: 20 million.

1989-1991 USA: Maryland first, later all USA – Measles

Sources:

* Epidemic Timeline from Hawkshome.net
* Major U.S. Epidemics from InfoPlease
* Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter

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