Victims of the Prevailing Epidemic

The Ebola crisis recently in the news brings to mind the flu epidemic of 1918-19.  This pandemic killed 50 MILLION people, largely healthy young adults from age 20-50.  You could feel fine in the morning and be dead by midnight.  So I wasn't surprised to find a family connection to this crisis as a result of my recent Gloucester research.  Sadly, this is a particularly tragic story.

William Bentley is a first cousin of ours, William being the grandson of Captain John Bentley. 

You will note he married Blanche Wagner.  Blanche and her sister Margaret survived a horrific fire as children that killed two of their siblings.  Their father had recently committed suicide and I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for their mother to move forward in her life.  Obviously she did and the girls went on to marry and have families.  I posted about this family and fire earlier. 

Tragically, you also notice that Margaret also died in the flu epidemic just one day after William died, leaving behind four young children including a 2 month old baby. 

Very tragic story all the way around.  Flu related news was all over the papers in this time period, in Gloucester and around the world.  Sometimes we don't consider that our families participated in the history of our country or world, but this is one small thread in the tapestry of world history. 

Just a reminder to check out the Gathering the Cousins blog once in a while.  I try to alternate Italian posts with Irish interests but you may find each interesting.  I usually update a post from the past with a little polish to make it more readable to a general audience.  The purpose is as "cousin bait" so that anyone with the same family history interests might come across it and make contact.  The more hits it gets, the higher it will appear in search results.  Let's hope we "catch" a cousin! :)