Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Copy Proof’

What happened to the bodies of 1918 Influenza victims?

January 29th, 2010 4 comments

During some research for family genealogy, I came across a little confusion about the flu epidemic of 1918. My great grandfather was drafted to WWI and reported to Fort Riley, Kansas in sept of 1918, by Oct 15 he was dead. Now no one knows where his body is and there was no death certificate issued. His death just kind of become a common knowledge thing but with no actual proof. Where bodies just disposed of with no record of who had died, like in a big burn ditch? Where could I look to find some hard copy proof? I’ve been to Kansas dept of vitals with no luck either. Thanks in advance!

That is an interesting question. I gave a link that has lots of information regarding the epidemic. It was also postulated that the folks didn’t die of the flu, but the cytokine storm that was invoked by the virus, because generally healthy young adults were among the most that ended up dieing. The very young and very old were spared, mostly because their immune systems were slow to react as opposed to those healthy younger adults. Good luck with your search.