And you worry about COVID?

Question

I'm researching a Virginia family living in Richmond in the early 19th century. They lost a 19-year-old son to the cholera epidemic in 1832. I've been communicating with the church where he is buried, and the woman who has been answering my questions, sent me this today. https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/2129

Read it. Quebec lost almost 79% of its entire population to cholera. Think about that. In the US today, that would mean the deaths of 259 MILLION dead.

Unbelievable. Imagine the consequences to the economy. Imagine entire families being wiped out. It makes me shudder to think about it.

We may have a lot of problems in modern society, but preventing mass casualties from epidemics is not one of them, thank God.

Answer 1

My 2 x GGU had 4 children die between 1869 and 1873, 3 of them in the same year in Birmingham, England from cholera, or typhus, and a 5th child died in 1878.

The 2 children who were born before 1868 survived, 3 out of 4 children born after 1874 also survived.

It is oddly more upsetting because the house he lived in is still there about 5 minutes walk from where my cousin his 2 x grt nephew lives.

That is 5 of 10 children, 50%  of his children. Even if we ignore the daughter who died in 1878, that's 40% of his children in 3 years.

Can you imagine 40 % of children under the age of 4 dying in any country?  Cause of death, diseases that are now preventable because of public health precautions and vaccinations .

Comments

When researching ancestors for a friend, I encountered a family who lost 5 children in 15 days to diphtheria.

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There is a colonisation road called the Nipissing Road in about 200+ km north of us.

In the early 1900s every family along the road had family members die of diptheria, (some records called it the Black Plaque) sometimes entire families died within a week, within about 2 years the settlements were abandoned, the few people whose families had not been impacted by diphtheria couldn't bear to live there any longer.

I have no idea how people coped with such incredible tragedy.

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Paul, thanks for the star !

Answer 2

Agreed, I am thankful for vaccines.

Answer 3

I have often reflected on how hard the lives of our pioneers were. Death registrations are a real eye opener.  Sometimes I see that they lose several family members, children, babies, grandma... within days of each other from things we don't even worry about nowadays. Makes me so sad to read about it, and thankful for the health that my family and I enjoy because of the work of others!

Answer 4

I have found quite a few who passed in the Spanish flu epidemic of the 1920's.

Answer 5

To be fair, there were only 2800 permanent residents of Quebec at that time, but still a significant loss. I know cholera hit some of my extended family in Illinois about that time.

I didn't realize it was a new disease that came up in the 1820's. I thought it was an ancient disease that just had periodic outbreaks. It truly was a pandemic of its time.

Let's see: 1826: Cholera. 1918: Spanish Flu. 2019: Covid. Looks like something big happens about once a century.

Comments

That's 28,000 (not 2800) residents of Québec City, not of the entire province, that's over 22,000 deaths in one town.

The entire area of Lower Canada, current day province of Québec had ~ 400,000 residents.

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Okay, that's not what the article said.

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It is difficult sometimes to know whether the information is inaccurate or just mis-transcribed.

There is often even now confusion about references to Québec City vs Québec the entire province .

Try this one, it's a mouthful,  it appears the original article was incorrect, those missing zeros will get you all the time!

https://www.cbc.ca/history/EPISCONTENTSE1EP7CH1PA2LE.html#:~:text=In%201832%2C%20Quebec%20had%2028%2C000,York%20became%20Toronto%20in%201834.&text=Between%201832%20and%201834%20its,to%20more%20than%209%2C000%20inhabitants.

Or there is this one which is more about the entire epidemic, I have not read the entire article.  

 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0025727300039041

Answer 6

Of course, I'm worried because of this situation, but we live in the 21st century, and medicine is more developed, we have vaccines, and so on. But still, the danger is high, and I hope that sooner or later (sooner is better) everything will finally end

Comments

It's okay to be worried, but in historical context, we've survived much worse. I think that's the main point here.

It doesn't look like it will "end" completely. But we have treatments that will reduce fatalities significantly, and it will be something else that we live with, like the flu. Diseases tend to become less lethal over time, hopefully that will happen here too.