Where would I find a list of people who died in the 1916 Polio outbreak?

Look at where he lived, check out the local libraries. They probably know or know best where to direct you.

the local historical society where he lived, also. or the county archives.

if you know his last name and approximate date of birth you could get his birth cert from the town clerk of the town he was born in then it would give you his parents names and where they’re from and you could do the same for them. or if you know his approx date of death you could get death cert from town clerk and that would have more info on it.

I have other reasons for wanting the list of names, those are all great suggestions. At the moment I don’t have the money to pay the fee to obtain his records even if I didn’t want the other names.

You have your work cut out for you. If you know the town where he lived and died, you could search the local newspapers. Obituaries are a prime source of information. But many of these newspapers are not in databases. Check the US Archives. A great deal of research involves slogging through piles of documents.

Thanks, I thought it was a long shot to find a list of names to begin with.

I appreciate all your answers. I wanted it for two reasons, one for my grandfather and two for an art piece. But, I can settle for family. :)

Thanks again.

Would there be such a list? I don’t know that there are normally nationwide lists of victims of any particular outbreak kept in some central place. Instead what we typically expect to see is a chronology of deaths by locality, with cause often but not always mentioned. It seems to me that only war produces records of all deaths from a single cause.

i think the problem you’ll have is that in those days, they did not keep records in such detail as they do now. in those days, many people were not even born in hospitals and did not always have birth certificates, and i think you’ll find other records are spotty at best.

There were very accurate Us census’ records in 1910 and 1920. I have copies of the handwritten data for my paternal grandfather and his family; but I did know the names and street address. In 1910, for my grandfather, someone had crossed out Polish as his native language and substituted Russian, both of which were wrong.

There are also archived phone books. In one of them, I discovered that my maternal great-grand father lived over his dry goods store.

Great points all, I think you’re right and no such list exists, I’ll check out all your suggestions, thanks. :)

@asmonet; I forgot to mention that I got the US census stuff because a friend had paid the fee so she was able to print up what I had asked for.

Thanks! :)

The Health Department in most states is both the keeper of vital statistics, but they may also have records on deaths due to outbreaks and it may not be confidential seeing as how much time has passed. If you could at least narrow down the state it would help me see what I could locate.