Do you have an Ancestor who died in the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918

Question

My great great grandmother Mary Elizabeth (Wiltse) Nissen passed away from this awful pandemic (see death record). The year of 1919!

Share your ancestors profiles and the difficulties it caused and how it changed future generations!

In my family it also affected my great grandmother Sara Alice (Nissen) Simpier who died less than a year after her mother Mary when my grandfather was only 5 years of age her sister Ruth (Nissen) Park lost her husband Mr. Park (not from spanish flu per death record; oddly during the pandemic though) she worked in the sanatorium

Wikipedia: Spanish Flu

Answer 1

You can add your ancestors to this category:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:1918_Flu_Pandemic

And you can read more here:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:1918_Flu_Pandemic

Comments

Thank you

Answer 2

Oddly enough, I was doing some research today, I broke a brick wall last night, and I found a 1st Cousin 2x removed who died of "influenza" per the death certificate on October 2, 1918 in Philadelphia,  His name was Edward Smith.  He was thirty years old.

Comments

30 years old Is very young! Tragic! Does he have wikitree profile? I found some info of that area being Philadelphia 

Philadelphia Encyclopedia

CNN: Philadelphia didn't cancel a parade during a 1918 pandemic. The results were devastating

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No Profile yet, still vetting some data on other members of the family.  Researching a Smith is at times, a real lesson in futility.  I could not figure out where his brother Mathew Smith went after the 1880 Census, too many of them.  Then I found the newspaper article on his brothers death, who had also been fun tracking down.  William Owen Smith  It mentioned the brother in lived in Philadelphia and bingo, things started to fall in place. I had a sneaking suspicion that the Philadelphia Mathew Smith was the one I was searching for, but just couldn't pin it down till now.

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Yes I know what you mean about researching the smith surname very difficult so many and very common but finding the vein of the person is key in Smith research such as obits or stone engravings family genealogy books etc

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Congratulations on breaking a brick wall!

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Just discovered his brother Henry died 11 Oct 1918 of the same. He was 28 years old.

And thanks for the Thumbs Up Peggy.  This one had driven me nuts for years.

Edited: Wow, this family had some bad karma.

Nicholas (1880-1920)  Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Edward (1888-1918) Spanish Flu

Henry (1890-1918} Spanish Flu

John (1894-1915) Pulmonary Tuberculosis

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Wow that pandemic went through all of them! So sad!

Answer 3

I had just recently saw a very good Documentary on my local PBS station that was specific to this horrible pandemic.

I also found that Mary Wiltse is my 16th Cousins 3x Removed... Isn't that crazy! LOL! :-O

~Brian Kerr

Comments

It’s amazing nobody else succumb to it; however I believe my great grandmother Sara Alice (Nissen) Simpier dying one year later was somehow related with the cause of death being TB etc. Her sister Ruth worked in the sanatorium and survived!

PBS Video: Influenza 1918

Answer 4

My great grandfather, Samuel Murch Haywood, died in the 1918 pandemic aged only 46.  He was a stoker in the Royal Navy, and died in Devonport, Devon, England, leaving a widow and ten children, the youngest being only two.  My grandfather would have been 15.

Samuel's was one of the first death certificates I had seen when I started out in genealogy, and it said he died of influenza.  Can you believe I had not even heard of the 1918 pandemic back then, so I was rather scornful that he had succumbed to something as ordinary as the flu.  Then I did some reading, and changed my opinion.  I have since seen photos and read eyewitness accounts, and realise that he must have gone through all that.  Poor Samuel.

Comments

Awful! Only 46 years old! He had children and looks like some were very young when he passed. It’s a miracle nobody else succumb to the pandemic in his home! I can picture him in isolation trying not to spread it to his wife and kids. Tragic!

Answer 5

Hey Andrew

So sorry to hear about your great, great grandmother.

Antibiotics don't help us with viruses, but I am looking forward to the vaccine being developed for covid-19.

Comments

No antibiotics don’t work on viruses. I agree hoping praying for vaccine soon : ) I was thinking how many died before antibiotics unrelated to Spanish flu. I removed the link to history of antibiotics

Answer 6

She's not my ancestor,but my Aunt Eva died in that flu pandemic.  She was still a little girl.  My dad was a little older at the time as he was nine years of age.

Comments

The poor children during the pandemic! Awful

I have a great Aunt Eva!

Answer 7

My great half-uncle whom we never knew.  He died at age 15.

Lloyd Earl Culp, my mother's half-uncle.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Culp-393

Comments

Looks like he is possibly my 9th cousin twice removed! I see he died in Ohio born in Pennsylvania and is buried in Pa! He was only 15 years old and never did see his 16th birthday and is listed as schoolboy; very sad and tragic! He passed the same year as my gg grandma Mary. That was a hard year for everyone around the world during that Spanish Flu pandemic!

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Hi Andrew, it looks like we are 10th cousins once removed.

Answer 8

My grandfather's first cousin,  James Lawrence Creighton, enlisted in the 71st Battery in May 1918. On October 12 1918, he died at sea of the flu epidemic of 1918. He was 20 years and his parents' only son.

My source is the Veterans Affairs Canada: Canadian Virtual War Memorial website. Family stories had told me about him and that he had died during his service, but it was not until Veterans Affairs Canada digitized all the WWI records that I found out how he died.

Thanks to the Veterans Affairs Canada: Canadian Virtual War Memorial website, I have been able to read the military files of both my grandfathers, all their brothers, and their first cousins.

I met a distant cousin on Wikitree this week and we shared family stories of this young private.

Comments

Very tragic being their only son. I’m so happy you found how and why he passed so you can keep his memory alive. Awful that Spanish flu pandemic it changed families lives and futures!

Answer 9

My great uncle Walter Harris died just weeks after getting married and joining the Army during World War I.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Harris-19355

Comments

He was a young healthy man and had a new wife; even joined the U.S. Army! He must of passed his military physical. Very tragic! My great uncle William Lionel Gibbs died in WWII at the “Battle of the Bulge” leaving his new wife also!

Beautiful profile of Walter Harris. Well done! Sorry for your loss

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Thank you, Andrew. War is tragic, all around, sorry your great uncle was a casualty too.

Answer 10

No, but my mother had it when she was in college and lost lost all her hair.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Layman-280

Comments

Amazing profile! That is a work of Love! That is interesting about losing hair from the Spanish flu! I wonder if others had this happen to them? So sorry for your loss

Answer 11

My great-grandmother didn't die during the pandemic, but she became paralyzed as a result of the flu ("long-COVID" as it appeared last century!). My late mother and aunt used to "play with grandma Eva" by putting her board-stiff body on a wagon and romping through Hanford, California. Apparently, except for being paralyzed, she was fine - and she seemed to enjoy spending time with her grandkids!