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After stumbling upon yet another member of my family tree who died in the huge influenza pandemic of 1918-1919, I wondered if others wanted to share stories of ancestors who died in this world-wide disaster.
This is one of the reasons why I love to do genealogy: I've always been a history buff, so it's fascinating to me to see how my family was effected by historical events.
I have a couple of distant cousins who died from the Spanish flu in 1918. Both of them were young men who had just enlisted in the army for World War I, and they contracted it while in boot camp.
My grandmother's fiancee died in Germany in June 1919. The death certificate states pneumonia as the cause of death but it seems logical that an otherwise healthy young man would be weakened by influenza. He was twenty-six.
My mother's older half brother died in December 1918 of tonsillitis. His death certificates states that he been tubercular for a year but again I wonder if influenza was a part of the equation. He was eight years old.
My grandfather and his sister both died of it, mid-1919.
My grandfather's mother died, as did his twin sister. They were teenagers.
I'm writing a book on Penniman, Virginia (should be out in a few months). Penniman was a WW1-era munitions plant, where they loaded 155mm and 75mm shells. Due to TNT poisoning, the Spanish Flu was VERY fatal there (as it was in other munition plants).
There are stories that they carried the bodies out in the back of trucks "stacked like cordwood" because they were dying so fast.
My grandmother's fiancee died in Germany in June 1919. The death certificate states pneumonia as the cause of death but it seems logical that an otherwise healthy young man would be weakened by influenza. He was twenty-six.
My mother's older half brother died in December 1918 of tonsillitis. His death certificates states that he been tubercular for a year but again I wonder if influenza was a part of the equation. He was eight years old.
At Camp Penniman (WW1-era munitions plant) all the death certificates listed "pneumonia" as the cause of death.
One of my great great great grandparents died from it in 1919. He was older though - 89 years old so probably had a weakened immune system. His death certificate says the same as the OP except he had an illness for 7 days. Two babies/young children also died that I have found due to influenza, one in 1918 and one in 1919. Sadly after that pandemic, most of the children and younger persons who died in my family died due to Tuberculosis, which was a horrible scourge in this area.
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