Sometimes We Need a Different Perspective

As we were facing a possible flu pandemic last year, it never occurred to me to look into the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic as a possible cause of family deaths.

The other night, I was doing my usual probing in the newest records on FamilySearchlabs.org  when I came across one of the sons of  our Heimbach family.  Joseph Frederick Heimbach had died in Chicago in Nov 1918.  His diagnosis was Lobar Pneumonia. Influenza was put in parentheses as a secondary cause.
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 Just prior to that in June, Joseph's brother-in-law, Edward Ellsworth, (our ancestor) had died of Myocarditis secondary to Hypostatic pneumonia.

According to Librarian Ann Maggio of Chicago,  "The virus made its first appearance in March of 1918 when, in Fort Funston, Kansas, over 200 soldiers complained of flu symptoms and nearly 50 died from the disease.
Health officials hardly took notice at the time, and the U.S. had other things on its mind: fighting World War I
the virus popped up in other pockets around the country that spring, it seemed to disappear as quickly as it came.According to newspaper reports from the period, for the week ending September 28, 598 new cases of Spanish Influenza were reported in Chicago and 176 deaths."

...the flu was 'officially declared an epidemic in Illinois in October of 1918'.
This particular article reappears quite often in the East St. Louis Journal during the fall of 1918.

As a matter of fact it wasn't until October of 1918 that it is even mentioned in the Chicago Times.

This is an excerpt from Jan 1919 Chicago Times: 









The majority of the news during Spring of 1918 until October 1918 was focused on WWI.  Even with the large death tolls, the only focus it received was to say for prominent people, funerals were not public.  It was sad to note that many did not even have a funeral because of the epidemic.

I  feel the Helena Heimbach Ellsworth must have been a very sad lady to have dealt with the death of,  first her husband, then her brother within a 5 month period.  She must have been a strong person.  Her daughter in law, remembered the time because she was in the hospital having her son, our ancestor, at the time Edward died.  She was worried about her baby's health.

I think both men were victims of the flu.  Edward seems to be one of the popped up and disappeared pockets. 

Other than giving an accounting of the huge number of fatalities as a result of this virus, there has been little information documented, with the exception of the military where it appears to have started, and epidemiology statistics.

My Favorite Volunteer Project.... Family Search Indexing

Family Search Indexing is absolutely the greatest project in my way of thinking, nothing opinionated here.   

I love helping others find their ancestors, especially those that are hard to find.  I find that helping index the records that are now being offered for free on Family Search Labs is opening doors for many who were not able to find the information before.  They have a blog that keep you upto date on the newest work being done.

I was researching on FamilySearch.org and they were asking for volunteers.  It did not matter if you were a member of their church or not.  They were looking for people who were willing to put in as many hours as they desired to complete projects they had to make information available to others over the internet.  I started out doing 2 hours a day for 6 months, but I now only do about 2 hours a week because I work at a Family History Center as a Family History Consultant and in the community now to assist others in their searches. I have indexed about 10,000 records so far.  I hope to add to that this year.  

They still need as many as will volunteer to continue to index.  There is still a huge number of records to be processed. There are so many interesting records to offer your skill to; you can even help with some that are in different language if you have the skill.   I find it has been helpful to understand the indexing process.  I caught how a mistake was made in an index on Ancestry.com because I knew the process of the forms used in the indexing methods.

Volunteering is just part of me, because volunteering and service are synonymous.  The best part of life is giving service.  I love it and I hope I am always able to give it!