Pandemics: From 1918—To The Future return to home page
Family history research and excavating your local town historical societies will help us discover the cultural fabric effects of the 1918 Influenza. It will also be interesting to compare how local editors published information about the virus compared to the national ban that existed for editors of larger newspapers.
For family research, begin by having your parents tell you (or perhaps you have to ask your grand parents) the names of your family households in the year 1910 and 1920. Every year 10 years the government compiles a census; if we know the names of your family members for 1910, 1920, and the town (address would be great!), then we can find them on line! It would also be a great historical thread if your family member was in the military; they keep great records, which are now available online.
Research links:
After asking family members, begin researching on this great site:
What are other good sites? Email them to the Pandemics folder.
For local history, you will have to put on your community relations and detective hat. You can visit your town web page to find out where your local historical society exists; you can probably learn more at your town library. You can ask them for help; you can also put on your thinking cap and begin to wonder where records for this forgotten disease may be. Does your town have an annual report? Most did at the turn of the century. Does your town have archives of the hometown newspaper? Check out those virulent months: October, November. Also look to December and January to see how more reporting may have existed once the bans for public gatherings had been lifted.