Have you lost an ancestor that you can’t find anywhere? In some cases, when an ancestor drops off the face of the earth and you’re clueless as to the disappearance of an ancestor check Epidemics that may have happened in areas where they lived.
Epidemics have always had a great influence on people and on our family history research, as well. In many cases, a person’s disappearance from records can be traced to an epidemic. The following is an incomplete list of Epidemics:
| 1657 | Boston, MA | Measles |
| 1687 | Boston, MA | Measles |
| 1690 | New York, NY | Yellow Fever |
| 1713 | Boston, MA | Measles |
| 1729 | Boston, MA | Measles |
| 1732-1733 | Worldwide | Influenza |
| 1738 | South Carolina | Smallpox |
| 1739-1740 | Boston, MA | Measles |
| 1747 | Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania & South Carolina | Measles |
| 1759 | North America | Measles |
| 1761 | North America & West Indies | Influenza |
| 1772 | North America | Measles |
| 1775 | North America, especially in New England | Epidemic, unknown |
| 1775-1776 | Worldwide | Influenza |
| 1788 | Philadelphia & New York | Measles |
| 1793 | Vermont | Influenza & “putrid fever” |
| 1793 | Virginia | Influenza |
| 1793 | Philadelphia, PA | Yellow Fever |
| 1783 | Dover, Delaware | Bilious disorder |
| 1793 | Harrisburg & Middletown, PA | Unexplained deaths |
| 1794 | Philadelphia, PA | Yellow Fever |
| 1796-1797 | Philadelphia, PA | Yellow Fever |
| 1798 | Philadelphia, PA | Yellow Fever |
| 1803 | New York | Yellow Fever |
| 1820-1823 | Nationwide, starts on Schuylkill River, Pennsylvania & spreads | Fever |
| 1831-1832 | Nationwide, brought by English emigrants | Asiatic Cholera |
| 1832 | New York & other major cities | Cholera |
| 1833 | Columbus, OH | Cholera |
| 1834 | New York City, NY | Cholera |
| 1837 | Philadelphia, PA | Typhus |
| 1841 | Nationwide, severe in the South | Yellow Fever |
| 1847 | New Orleans, LA | Yellow Fever |
| 1847-1848 | Worldwide | Influenza |
| 1848-1849 | North America | Cholera |
| 1849 | New York | Cholera |
| 1850 | Nationwide | Yellow Fever |
| 1850-1851 | North America | Influenza |
| 1851 | Coles County, IL | Cholera |
| 1851 | The Great Plains | Cholera |
| 1851 | Missouri | Cholera |
| 1852 | Nationwide | Yellow Fever |
| 1855 | Nationwide | Yellow Fever |
| 1857-1859 | Worldwide | Influenza |
| 1860-1861 | Pennsylvania | Smallpox |
| 1865-1873 | Philadelphia, PA; Boston, MA; New Orleans, LA; Baltimore, MD; Memphis, TN & Washington D.C. | Recurring epidemics: Smallpox; Cholera; Typus; Typhoid; Scarlet Fever & Yellow Fever |
| 1873-1875 | North America & Europe | Influenza |
| 1878 | New Orleans, LA | Yellow Fever |
| 1885 | Plymouth, PA | Typhoid |
| 1886 | Jacksonville, FL | Yellow Fever |
| 1918* | Worldwide | Influenza |
*More people were hospitalized during the 1918 outbreak of Influenza during World War I than wounds. U.S. Army training camps became death camps, with 80% death rate in some camps.