Plague

Few events have touched the lives of our ancestors in such deadly form as Plague.

I commented on its history in a blog post in my other blog, Discover Genealogy on 21 August 2018: Natural Disasters and Family Misfortunes 16: Plague Readers are directed to that post for more detail about the origin, pathology and spread of the disease.

To briefly summarize that post, there have been three pandemics of the disease:

·         the Justinian, about 541-542 AD, which devastated the Byzantine Empire

·         the Black Death, 1346-1351 AD which spread across medieval Europe

·         the Modern Plague, which began in the 1860s in China and spread to port cities around the world by the early 1900s

Most genealogists will be at least passing familiar with the Black Death and subsequent plagues that attacked centres across Europe between the 14^th and 18^th centuries. Of those most known after the original outbreak in the mid-14^th century was the Great Plague of London, 1665-1666. Few areas of the continent were spared from the impacts of the disease.

 

Plague incidences in Europe (source Schmid, 2015)

An excellent source of information, ideal for reading by family historians, is a book by Bruce M. S. Campbell, titled The Great Transition. The author presents a detailed summary of the early decades of the Little Ice Age and some of the perils, including plague, that affected people and communities around the known world in the 13^th to 15^th centuries. Dr. Campbell has also made many presentations about the subject. One which is highly recommended was a talk given at a 2016 conference about The Crisis of the 14^th Century, organized by the German Historical Institute, and titled The environmental origins of the Black Death. You can, and should in my opinion, watch it on You Tube.

The Justinian and Black Death plague events occurred, probably not coincidentally, during cold climatic periods, respectively, the Dark Ages cold Period (400 to 900 AD) and the Little Ice Age (1300 to 1850 AD). During these times, the warm, moisture-laden westerlies blew from the North Atlantic through southern Europe and into western Asia.

The rodent population, hosts of the yersina pestis virus, expanded as the central Asian desert they inhabited bloomed. During down cycles, fleas carrying the virus hopped on to rats and humans travelling through the region. Unsuspecting human populations across Europe were then infected by the rapidly spreading plagues.

 

Genesis of plague and the process of introduction into Durope (source Schmid, 2015)

Plague outbreaks, from the time of the Black Death in the 1340s, continued through the Little Ice Age, as the overall climatic conditions remained essentially unchanged. During the 18^th century, though, its effects were less severe, and the locations reduced in number and extent. By that time, hygienic conditions were substantially improved across the continent, lessening the potential of contracting the disease.

The Modern Plague epidemic began in China, possibly aided by cool climatic periods. The pathogen undoubtedly originated in the same desert areas of western Asia. It spread to other parts of the world through outbound ships from Chinese ports which were easier than through the ancient trade routes to the west.

Over the decades since the last outbreak, vaccines have been developed for treatment of the disease, although they are not 100% effective yet. Early detection and recognition of where the virus can be found has limited its exposure and transmission. The affliction is still endemic in many parts of the world, but the wrath of Mother Nature in producing epidemics of the type experienced during the Little Ice Age is unlikely.

References:

Campbell, Bruce. M. S. (2016). The Great Transition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Schmid, Boris V., Ulf Büntgen, W. Ryan Easterday, Christian Ginzler, Lars Walløe, Barbara Bramanti & Nils Chr. Stenseth. (2015). Climate-driven introduction of the Black Death and

successive plague reintroductions into Europe. PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), 112(10), pp. 3020-3025,retrieved from https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/112/10/3020.full.pdf

Reading List: Natural Phenomena and Genealogy

I added a new page to this blogsite that contains a list of published books and articles dealing with natural phenomena. I offer these as I think they relate to family history studies. More are presented in my book, Surviving Mother Nature’s Tests. 

You can get to the page by clicking on the link on the right margin, titled Reading List: Natural Phenomena and Genealogy.

Those marked with an * are particularly recommended for an introduction into the subject. They are all very readable as well as interesting. Readers interested in looking at ways in which Mother Nature impacted families in the past will hopefully find some relevant information in some of these publications.

Over time I will add to the list, particularly titles that relate to my blog posts or published papers. 

New England Storms

“. . . The northeast branch of the hurricane was accompanied by a terrible thunder shower during which the flashes of lightening were incessant, the whole heavens seeming to be one blaze of fire. The wind and hail that accompanied the shower almost entirely destroyed the grain. It passed onward to Royalton, where the rain fell in such quantity that the water was knee deep in the houses, and many buildings were undermined and ruined. One house was thrown down and carried a considerable distance by the flood. Hail of extreme size fell here plentifully, and it was affirmed by credible people that some of the stones were six inches in length, and by estimation weighed a pound. . .”

One might wonder if that description of a major storm was written recently, given all the news about hurricanes of the modern age. But the excerpt was actually taken from a book originally published in 1891 about a storm in the northeast United States that occurred on 23 June 1782.

The book is titled, Historic Storms of New England by Sidney Perley. It was first published by Salem Press Publishing and Printing Company, Salem, Massachusetts. The book was republished in 2001 by Memories Unlimited, Inc., Beverley, Massachusetts.

As the book’s subtitle, or general description notes, it is a compilation of New England “. . . Gales, Tornadoes, Showers with Thunder and Lightning, Great Snow Storms, Rains, Freshets, Floods, Droughts, Cold Winters, Hot Summers, Avalanches, Earthquakes, Dark Days, Comets, Aurora Borealis, Phenomena in the Heavens, Wrecks Along the Coast, with Incidents and Anecdotes, Amusing and Pathetic.”

The events recorded span the period from 1685 to 1890, which includes the last half of the Little Ice Age. The book is entertaining and informative, written in an old-style manner. It contains many specific references to places and people, so will be of use to family historians researching ancestors who lived in the New England region.

I bought my copy through Amazon. It was not vey expensive and, besides, I like to have these kinds of publications on my bookshelf where I can thumb through them at my leisure.

The original book can be found and downloaded in various electronic formats for free at archive.org. https://archive.org/stream/historicstormsn00perlgoog#page/n6/mode/2up

Overall, the book is a wonderful resource that connects people, communities and the impact of Mother Nature. It combines the scientific facts of the physical events with the mystical and spiritual beliefs of the people who lived through them.

My New Blog – Mother Nature’s Tests

To my new (and old) readers. Welcome to my new blogsite.

Information here, as outlined above, is meant for family historians. Readers will discover how people and communities were impacted in the past by natural phenomena – or Mother Nature.

I will write blog posts concerning examples of actual events from all over the world and how families coped with them. Links will be added to websites and articles that may assist genealogists looking for specific data about certain areas.

As I have said in the Introduction to my book, “responses to natural phenomena, and how people adapted to environmental changes are part and parcel of the construction of family histories. Physical changes to human habitats through natural causes may have been underlying factors in decisions to move – to find jobs and/or improved living conditions.”

The blog will be an extension to the book and, hopefully encourage genealogists to explore the natural world, especially with respect to the areas in which their ancestors lived and the physical events that occurred during their lifetimes.

I hope you enjoy the posts and other information and find ways of using knowledge of the natural environment to assist studies of your family history.