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He was born in 1886 making him 32 years old. Have been reading "The Great Influenza" by John M. Barry,and wondering if my grandfather could have survived it. He was a cougher, a smoker, and had a "hole" under his arm that drained something and had to have bandages placed and changed alot. My grandmother took care of this. He wasn't sick, except for this trouble. He took us out on Halloween and I recall he did not have any physical disability. This is in the late 1940s.
Am sure there are no medical records anywhere but any other hints that would help answer my question: Was he a survivor? More than 600,000 people died from this epidemic. TIA
What makes you think he had it? I mean, it's the flu - most people have probably contracted the flu at some point in their lives. The only question would be did he have it during the 1918 epidemic. I'm not sure there's any way to know this unless one died from it, or you were told first hand. I certainly wouldn't make an assumption.
Well -- 32 is in the wheelhouse for dying from it. But -- it's possible there was some immunity somehow -- like the plague survivors that passed down that gene, so the next time it came around their ancestors had that genetic immunity. And like everything -- most people survived.
But I can say this -- I had a number of family members die in 1916-1918, and thanks to Ancestry having PA death certs, I can say for a fact only ONE person died of the flu. My grandmother's first husband. I lost a lot more to TB. A number of more men in that locality died at Camp Greene in NC from all sorts of stuff...starting with dysentery and going from there to death... and not the flu. Didn't show up there till much later. The same rotten conditions that caused all the nasty illnesses that led to death (there were about 6 local boys dead) led to the flu taking hold the way it did.
I don't think there's any way to know -- any records kept would be more numerical than names....
Am sure there are no medical records anywhere but any other hints that would help answer my question: Was he a survivor? More than 600,000 people died from this epidemic. TIA
Have you tried to locate his death certificate or his obituary? I've found family members who died from the Spanish flu using these methods.
One of the saddest parts of my tree involves the 1818 flu epidemic. One branch of my 5th great-grandmother's family left Missouri around 1912 and settled in a small town in Colorado near an Army base. The nearby Army base was a breeding ground for the Spanish flu while soldiers were being trained for WWI.
In a matter of 3 weeks, this whole family was practically wiped out. The mother and four of her sons died from the Spanish flu. Only the father and their young daughter (the baby of the family) survived. It's heartbreaking. Can you imagine watching your spouse and four children die in a matter of 3 weeks?
I was able to confirm this using death certificates and newspaper obits.
Well -- 32 is in the wheelhouse for dying from it. But -- it's possible there was some immunity somehow -- like the plague survivors that passed down that gene, so the next time it came around their ancestors had that genetic immunity. And like everything -- most people survived.
But I can say this -- I had a number of family members die in 1916-1918, and thanks to Ancestry having PA death certs, I can say for a fact only ONE person died of the flu. My grandmother's first husband. I lost a lot more to TB. A number of more men in that locality died at Camp Greene in NC from all sorts of stuff...starting with dysentery and going from there to death... and not the flu. Didn't show up there till much later. The same rotten conditions that caused all the nasty illnesses that led to death (there were about 6 local boys dead) led to the flu taking hold the way it did.
I don't think there's any way to know -- any records kept would be more numerical than names....
Tally: How do you get death certificates from Ancestry? Never knew this was possible.
And, my grandfather died in 1959, so it wasn't from the flu. But he either had TB or some lung thing, most of his life. It was a chronic condition.
My grandmother was 8 years old in 1918 but remembers the epidemic well. In my dad's hometown there are an over-abundance of headstones in the graveyard that are from 1918. I don't know how in-depth the links are but this website offers some: https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/in...ords-list.html
I was surprised to note that they said the Influenza epidemic of 1918 killed more people than WWI & caused the nations life expectancy rate to drop by 12%!
Tally: How do you get death certificates from Ancestry? Never knew this was possible.
Ancestry.com has death certificates from a number of states, generally only up to a certain point though (ie, ones from 50+ years ago, most aren't very recent).
Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1964
Texas, Death Certificates, 1903-1982
North Carolina, Death Certificates, 1909-1976
Tennessee, Death Records, 1908-1958
South Carolina, Death Records, 1821-1965
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Death Certificates Index, 1803-1915
Washington, Select Death Certificates, 1907-1960
Vermont, Death Records, 1909-2008
Washington, Deaths, 1883-1960
Utah, Death and Military Death Certificates, 1904-1961
Oconee County, Georgia, Probate Death Certificates, 1927-2010
Michigan, Death Records, 1867-1950
Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011
Web: Missouri, Death Certificates, 1910-1962
Nevada, Death Records, 1911-1965
That's just what turned up when I searched the card catalog for death certificates - there's more under death records (there's a difference between certificate and record).
"Georgia Death Certificates from 1919 through 1927. The collection also includes a number of certificates from 1914-1918, with the bulk dating from 1917 and 1918."
He was born in 1886 making him 32 years old. Have been reading "The Great Influenza" by John M. Barry,and wondering if my grandfather could have survived it. He was a cougher, a smoker, and had a "hole" under his arm that drained something and had to have bandages placed and changed alot. My grandmother took care of this. He wasn't sick, except for this trouble. He took us out on Halloween and I recall he did not have any physical disability. This is in the late 1940s.
Am sure there are no medical records anywhere but any other hints that would help answer my question: Was he a survivor? More than 600,000 people died from this epidemic. TIA
If you were alive in 1918, I imagine it would have been difficult to not have been exposed to that virus.
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