When tracing death records for our ancestors we may notice a time when several family members died within days of each other. Could there have been a epidemic? When we have a timeline, that focuses on the years when epidemic’s are ocuring in the world, as well as in specific states of the United States, we can check to see if there was an epidemic at that time. I found a great “Epidemic Timeline” here! Seeing an epidemic in an area where your ancestors lived at about the time they lived there might give an explanation for what normally may seem hard to believe.

A woman doing research found the mother, father and several children had died in the same family within a short time. They lived in Italy in the 1800’s. She can go to the “Epidemic Timeline” and see that there was an “Influenza” outbreak “World wide.” There were children remaining in this family. What happened to them? She could look to aunts and uncles to see if they took the children as their own.

It is not a completely conclusive way to find out how ancestors died, but it does give us an idea. Sometimes an idea leads to more information.

Check out the “Epidemic Timeline” and use it in research, it very interesting!

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy