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From: "Barbara Shepard Smith" <>
Subject: Re: [GENMASSACHUSETTS] "The Spanish Flu" of 1918
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:11:13 -0500
References: <5D390CA827044C44BA4850777EC16B74@LivingRoom>


Hi Betty, I also watched it, how amazing and sad, escpecially the fact that
it killed more people than all the wars combined in the 20th century, about
550,000 the narrator said. My grandfather was in France in 1918, came home
fine to a family of 18 brothers and sisters, none of whom caught the flu
either. I don't know of anyone in my family who died from it. They all
lived in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

Barbara, Middleboro, Mass
----- Original Message -----
From: "Betty" <>
To: <>; <>
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 6:08 AM
Subject: [GENMASSACHUSETTS] "The Spanish Flu" of 1918


> Hello,
>
> I watched a documentary on TV last night about the "Spanish Flu of 1918."
> It was one of many, well-done documentaries as part of the PBS "American
> Experience" series of shows.
>
> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/
>
> It was amazing how many died from that Influenza, and it was amazing that
> it
> is now known that it was a "virus" and not a "bacteria" - and it flew
> through the air from one person to another. People who caught it would
> usually be dead within a week, including the soldiers. What was also
> amazing is that this "Flu" - died out - about 10 months later, all by
> itself.
>
> I'm pretty sure that Fort Devens was mentioned, and I think MA was
> mentioned
> at other times.
>
> Most of my great-grandparents and grandparents were alive in MA in 1918,
> and I don't recall hearing any stories about any of them suffering from
> that
> Flu or dying from it. One great-grandfather in Everett died suddenly
> at
> the dinner table; I don't recall the cause of death at this second but
> it
> had something to do with a Stroke or Seizure in Jan. 1905. (105 yrs.
> ago
> this month)
>
> As it was, the other great-grandparents died of cancer in the 1920's, or
> died of a stroke in the 1930's, or died of heart disease in the 1940's, or
> died of natural causes in the 1950's.
>
> There were so many things that killed people between 1900 to 1950's that
> Influenza was only one thing - albeit - killed "more" than other things
> did.
>
> Two sets of great-grandparents lost young-adult children either from a
> "heart attack" or "childbirth." One grandmother gave birth to 2
> stillborns in a row before she delivered a live child. (That daughter
> also delivered a stillborn - her only child.) And the other
> grandmother
> had 9 children, and during the 1920's, she lost 3 babies / toddlers - for
> different reasons.
>
> My husband's grandmother was pregnant with twins - when her husband was
> killed in a car accident in 1929. She delivered a month later. Both
> boys
> died before they were 2. She claimed they - drowned in their milk.
> ("went down the wrong tube" ??)
>
> And -- thinking yesterday - "shoveling" was probably another cause of
> death -- through all the centuries !
>
> Betty (near Lowell, MA)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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