Epidemic in 1783

[lininberks]

I have a family who all died within the space of 2 weeks in Ede, Gelderland, Netherlands in 1783.  On 5th September the first to die was the 3 week old baby, followed 5 days later by his two brothers, aged 2 and 4.  The father then died on 15th September and finally the poor mother on 17th September.

Was there an epidemic (cholera/smallpox) in that year which could have caused this tragedy?

[mckha489]

Goggling brings up

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N27531.0001.001/1:12?rgn=div1;view=fulltext

Reading it makes you wonder when there wasn’t an epidemic or a volcano erupting


way down is this

“In autumn 1783 some parts of Europe were deluged with continual rains, and at Rome 5 or 6000 children died of the small-pox. About Grenoble raged an epidemic fever.

A distemper among the cattle in Derby in England, occasion|ed no small alarm, and a royal proclamation was issued enjoin|ing certain precautions to prevent the propagation of the disease.

Cotemporary with these convulsions of nature, was a most desolating plague in Egypt, the Grecian Isles, Dalmatia, Con|stantinople, Smyrna and in the Crimea. It is not possible, with the general accounts given of such an epidemic, in the public prints, to state, with any precision, its origin and progress in the east. It is mentioned to have appeared in Smyrna, in the spring of 1783, and it certainly raged in Constantinople, and many

[Ruskie]

I presume you have already explored this, but (if available) would the original burial records say what they died from?

[lininberks]

Thank you both for your comments - the link to the article certainly makes for fascinating, if somewhat gruesome reading.  Unfortunately the original records give no causes of death, but looking at the numbers, it looks like it must have been something that came quickly and tore through the population.  Between January and June that year there was an average of 2-4 deaths per month.  In July 5 people died, then in August 17 deaths were noted, mostly towards the end of the month.  September must have been horrific as in that small town 97 people died.  By October the numbers fell to 46, then 10 in November and only 2 in December.  By the following year deaths looked to be back to normal numbers.

[BelgianAncestry]

The 1783 epidemic in Gelderland was caused by dysentery, in old Dutch called "persloop", "bloedloop" or "rode loop". See contemporary description https://www.delpher.nl/nl/boeken/view?coll=boeken&identifier=dpo:10828:mpeg21:0003&objectsearch=gelderland "De heerschende persloop, (dysenteria epidemica) die .../... vooral in 1783 de provincie van Gelderland fel getroffen heeft."

[leen]

According to this site http://home.kpn.nl/amchartgers/rampen.htm  in 1783 there was an outbreak of dysentery in Ede. On a total of approx. 600 inhabitants: 108 of the 296 inhabitants affected by the disease, died. (see : De dysenteria epidemica)

[lininberks]

Thank you very much - what a horrible thing to have happened, but it certainly explains why such a high proportion of children died.  There seems to be a possibility that it was linked to the eruption of a volcano in Iceland earlier that year, which affected the weather patterns and could have also caused problems in the water supply resulting in this epidemic.   Certainly puts what we have been experiencing this year into perspective.