Another milestone has been reached: There are now more than 1,000 memorials to Latter-day Saints (with a handful of others among us) who lost their lives to influenza and pneumonia in the pandemic of 1918-1920.
As of yet I see no reason to revise my estimate of 5,000 Latter-day Saint dead. I’m still finding people faster than I can write their memorials and still have huge numbers of easily searched Utah and Idaho records to go through. Once I can access the Church History Library collection where I expect to be able to identify our people in missions throughout the US and abroad, the process will go a little more slowly but should still be productive.
Thanks for participating, whether that is reading every memorial, dipping in when you can, sending leads to your own family history, or otherwise finding connections to these Latter-day Saints of the past.
Our own pandemic is far from over. Please protect yourselves as much as you can. Your loss would be as great to us today as any of these past losses were to the people and the Church of that day.
Thanks for your tributes and time!
Yes, thank you. Reading them has made me more aware of how truly awful the 1918 pandemic must have been. So many lives lost, and so many young and vulnerable family left behind. These memorials have changed me.
And thanks for this parting thought: “Your loss would be as great to us today as any of these past losses were to the people and the Church of that day.” Beautiful.
As always, you amaze and inspire me. Thank you for your dedication and service to a more complete and personal historical record.