Natural Disasters and Family Misfortunes 16: Plague

People may be unaware of the fact that the Plague, that devasted Europe centuries ago, is still with us.

Yup! That PLAGUE!

Of course, we have come a long way in the recognition and treatment of the disease. There has not been a major outbreak since the 17^th century, at least ones that resulted in mass deaths. But it did affect the population of several European cities into the early 1800s.

Three pandemics of the disease are well described in articles about The History of Plague by John Frith:

·         First (Justinian) – “The first great pandemic of bubonic plague where people were recorded as suffering from the characteristic buboes and septicaemia was the Justinian Plague of 541 CE, named after Justinian I, the Roman emperor of the Byzantine Empire at the time. The epidemic originated in Ethiopia in Africa and spread to Pelusium in Egypt in 540. It then spread west to Alexandria and east to Gaza, Jerusalem and Antioch, then was carried on ships on the sea trading routes to both sides of the Mediterranean, arriving in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in the autumn of 541.”

·         Second (Black Death) – “In 1346 it was known in the European seaports that a plague epidemic was present in the East. In 1347 the plague was brought to the Crimea from Asia Minor by the Tartar armies of Khan Janibeg, who had laid siege to the town of Kaffa, a Genoese trading town on the shores of the Black Sea. . . In panic the Genoese traders fled in galleys with ‘sickness clinging to their bones’ to Constantinople and across the Mediterranean to Messina, Sicily, where the great pandemic of Europe started. By 1348 it had reached Marseille, Paris and Germany, then Spain, England and Norway in 1349, and eastern Europe in 1350.”

·         Third – “The plague re-emerged from its wild rodent reservoir in the remote Chinese province of Yunnan in 1855. From there the disease advanced along the tin and opium routes and reached the provincial capital of K’unming in 1866, the Gulf of Tonkin in 1867, and the Kwangtung province port of Pakhoi in 1882. In 1894 it had reached Canton and then spread to Hong Kong. It had spread to Bombay by 1896 and by 1900 had reached ports on every continent, carried by infected rats travelling the international trade routes on the new steamships.”

Since the beginning of the 20^th century, there have been occasional infection of individuals around the world, the latest reported in June 2018 of probable bubonic plague in an American teenager in Idaho.

The bacterium, Yersinia pestis, is hosted in rodents and spread by fleas that live on these hosts.

The generally accepted theory of how the disease develops expands and spreads is during periods of climate change, in particular in regions that are normally dry and that become wet through an increase in rainfall.

In nature, the bacteria live in wild rodents and in the soil of their habitat. In areas that are hot and dry, the populations of these animals are stable, as are the numbers of fleas that live on them. During the latter part of the 13^th century, in central Asia, the climatic conditions changed, bringing more rainfall over many years. The semi-arid habitat was transformed allowing the entire grassland ecosystem to grow. The rodent numbers – marmots, susliks and gerbils – exploded along with the accompanying pathogen-carriers, the fleas. There is a great summary of the history of the plague and its attack on Europe, beginning in the 14^th century, in The Great Transistion by Bruce M. S. Campbell (2016).

The wild rodents were eventually overpowered by the bacteria and began to die in large numbers, possibly aided by occasional droughts. That fostered the jump to other rodent and small mammal populations which had a wider range, including many that coexisted with humans. The infected rodents and their parasitic insects moved westward with the trade caravans. Eventually the domestic rats began to die off en masse and the infected fleas and lice transferred to humans. The result, with people interacting on a wide regional scale, was a pandemic that quickly spread across all of Europe.

The bacterium has mutated over the centuries, with different strains causing epidemics. Antibiotics now assist in the recovery of plague victims. Death tolls have been reduced from 50% of those affected to about 10%, or better if treatment is begun within 24 hours of diagnosis.

Plague bacteria still exist in many locations around the world, mainly in particularly warm and dry regions. The diagram below shows the Global Distribution of Plague

 

(A) Map showing countries with known presence of plague in wild reservoir species (red). For US only the mainland below 50° N is shown. (B) Annual number of human plague cases over different continents, reported to WHO in the period 1954–2005. (C) Cumulative number of countries that reported plague to WHO since 1954

In North America, plague cases have been restricted to the western regions. Plague was first seen in the US in 1900, introduced by rats from steamships that had arrive from affected areas in Asia. The last urban outbreak occurred in Los Angeles in 1924-25. Thirty people died during a two-week period (Viseltear, 1974).

Since the Los Angeles occurrence, isolated cases have been diagnosed, mostly in rural areas. Over 80% have been of the bubonic form. People of all ages have contracted the disease at the rate of about seven cases per year.

 

Reported cases of human plague in the United States between 1970 and 2016; one dot placed randomly in most likely county of exposure for each confirmed case (retrieved 21 August 2018 from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website) 

The modern world does not have much to fear from this disease anymore, but genealogists my find many of their ancestors were exposed to it, possibly succumbing as the survival rates were very low.

What is interesting is that it has never gone away!

References:

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

Chodosh, S. (2018). Five things you might not know about the plague (not including the fact that it still exists). Popular Science website. 

Frith, John. (2012). The History of Plague – Part 1: The three great pandemics. Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health. 20(2).

Stenseth, N. C., B. B. Atshabar, M. Begon, S. R. Belmain, E. Bertherat, E. Carniel, K. L. Gage, H. Leirs & L. Rahalison. (2008). Plague: Past, Present, and Future. http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050003

Viseltear, A. J. (1974). Pneumonic Plague epidemic of 1924 in Los Angeles. Journal of Biology and Medicine. Volume 1, pp 40-54. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2595158/pdf/yjbm00152-0044.pdf

Plague (disease) – Wikipedia

Plague – World Health Organization

A New Cousin: And a reminder lesson on surname spelling

I found a new cousin recently. Or I should say she found me.

Karen, whose maiden name is Shepherd, wrote to me for information she is compiling about her family for her mother’s 90^th birthday next year.

“My name is Karen P…. (nee Shepherd) and I live in South Devon. For my mother’s 90th birthday next May I am working with a local genealogist to find out about my father’s family history about which I know very little except that the family lived in Cornwood. My father was Peter James Morris Shepherd (b. 1926, d. 2003), my grandfather William Alfred Shepherd (m. Eva Morris), great grandfather James Richard Shepherd (m. Priscilla Bowden), & my father thought that my great-great-grandparents were John and Betsey Shepherd, although he was not certain.  I have read your article on the Shepheard family and am wondering if we are related.  I should be very grateful if you could let me know if you have come across any information to that effect.”

Karen also thought that my father, whose picture she found on my blogsite, had some resemblance to her father, “particularly with respect to the nose and eyes.” She may be right. I kind of thought they, like many Shepheard men, had similarities with foreheads.

 

William Calvin Shepheard and Peter James Morris Shepherd, both in their 20s.

My immediate reaction, after Karen’s first message was that we may not be related. I did not recognize the names of her father and grandfather. I also knew that the John and Betsey Shepherd she referenced, and about whom I had written in an article in the Journal of One-Name Studies, had only one son and he died at the age of five.

Karen’s statement that her ancestors were from Cornwood intrigued me, though. There was another Shepheard family in the area, not related to me, who had arrived in the late 19^th century from South Pool, Devon. I considered that Karen’s family might be related to them

The names she gave for her great-grandparents, James Richard Shepherd and Priscilla Bowden, struck a chord. I knew we had a James Rickard Shepheard in the family and, when I checked my tree, the birth and death dates were the same and the wife was, indeed, Priscilla Bowden. If the name Rickard was right for Karen’s ancestor, then that made us 5^th cousins, once removed.

Surname spelling is often a problem in our family. Even today many people want to leave out the ‘a’ in my name. But I have traced my direct ancestors back to the early 1600s and the spelling has never changed, at least with people who were literate. Those that could not read or write, often took on the spelling that the parish clerk or vicar recorded for them, so our family ends up with a number of different variants.

I went back into my Cornwood baptism, marriage and death records to see when Karen’s family lost their ‘a’. It turned out the change happened for good with her great-grandfather’s grandfather (her 3^rd great-grandfather), Thomas SHEPHEARD, my 4^th great-granduncle:

·         Thomas’s 1771 baptism was recorded in the church register as Thomas SHEPHERD, although his father signed his name as Richard SHEPHEARD in the Cornwood marriage register when he wed Mary COLLINS, who also signed, in 1761. Richard and Mary were my 5^th and Karen’s 4^th great-grandparents. Old church register entries are not always accurate for names, as vicars often spelled them in whatever form they thought best or the way they heard them, not necessarily the right way. Documents on which individuals themselves signed their names are better indicators of correctness.

·         On Thomas's 1798 Cornwood marriage record, he signed also his name as SHEPHEARD which tells us he thought that was the correct and accepted spelling. Ann Sanders also signed her name. One of their witnesses was John SHEPHEARD, Thomas’s brother and my 4^th great-grandfather. By the way, John married a first cousin, who signed her name very boldly as Jane Treby SHEPHEARD.

·         The Cornwood baptism records show the names of the children of Thomas and Ann in a variety of ways (It seems most vicars over the years all tried to change our surname):

o   Mary SHEPPARD (1798)

o   Richard SHEPPARD (1800)

o   William SHEPPARD (1804)

o   Thomas SHEPPARD (1806)

o   Amy SHEPHERD (1809)

o   Eliza SHEPHERD (1811)

o   James SHEPHERD (1813)

o   John SHEPHEARD (1815) – The vicar got this one right!

o   Samuel SHEPPARD (1816)

o   Harriet SHEPHERD (1819)

o   Sarah SHEPHERD (1822)

·         Thomas’s 1834 Cornwood burial register entry shows his name as SHEPHERD. His death predates civil registration so we do not have a formal death certificate that would show the true spelling of his name.

·         The 1846 civil death certificate for Thomas’s wife Ann, however, shows her surname as SHEPHEARD, widow of Thomas SHEPHEARD. Her Cornwood burial record also shows her name as SHEPHEARD. Clearly the family was still using this spelling their entire lives.

None of the children of Thomas and Ann appear to have used SHEPHEARD, at least according to parish and civil records.

James, 2^nd great-grandfather of Karen and son of Thomas and Ann (my 1^st cousin, five times removed), was recorded on the Cornwood baptism as SHEPHERD. But the record of his 1848 marriage to Elizabeth RICKARD has him as James SHEPHEARD. On this record, however, both James and Elizabeth made their marks indicating neither were literate. In this case the Vicar may well have known how to spell his surname, from association with his family. But, from later records we have, James did not use the ‘a’ in his surname.

Three of their four children were baptized in Cornwood and the fourth in Devonport as:

·         Elizabeth Ann SHEPHERD (1849) – GRO certificate SHEPHEARD

·         Susanna Rickard SHEPHARD (1852) – GRO certificate SHEPHERD

·         James Rickard SHEPHERD (1854) – GRO certificate SHEPHERD

·         Mary Jane SHEPHERD (1861) – GRO certificate SHEPHERD

Interestingly, the first child was recorded officially as SHEPHEARD but the other three were not. On Elizabeth Ann’s birth record, the informant was her mother, who again only made her mark which may indicate SHEPHEARD was not their preferred spelling. All of the children used the SHEPHERD surname throughout their own lives, as evidenced on various GRO certificates.

Not that it necessarily means a lot, but the family were recorded on the various census records as:

·         1851 – SHIPHARD

·         1861 – SHEPHARD

·         1871 to 1891 – SHEPHERD

Both James (in 1897) and Elizabeth (in 1886) were buried in Cornwood as SHEPHERD. In addition to have been shown on their death certificates, the name is recorded in both the burial register and carved on their headstone.

James Rickard SHEPHERD, Karen’s great-grandfather (my 2^nd cousin, four times removed), married Priscilla Mary Bowden in 1876. He signed his name as SHEPHERD.

James Rickard and Priscilla Mary had four children, all born in Cornwood, and all registered with the SHEPHERD name. James (in 1912) and Priscilla (in 1941) both died and were buried in Cornwood as SHEPHERD.

The conclusion for this particular family line is that James SHEPHEARD/SHEPHERD (1813-1897) abandoned his ‘a’ sometime after his marriage, perhaps after the birth of his first child, they adopted the surname spelling with no ‘a’. From then on, all of James’s descendants used SHEPHERD.

At least one brother of James – John – who I wrote about in an article in the Journal of One-Name Studies (Volume 12, Issue 4, October-December 2015), also adopted the use of SHEPHERD, although some of his children reverted back to using the ‘a’.

What we do not know is why this line adopted a variation of their surname without the ‘a’. Perhaps the vicar finally got to him.

Unlock the Past in Seattle - September 6th

Adelaide, South Australia, 14 August 2018 – Unlock the Past Cruises announces that the Unlock the Past in Seattle full-day two-stream conference (previously announced) will now also be available to watch live online – and for a limited time after as a series of 10 recorded webinars.

Date & time: Thursday 6 September 2018, 9am-5pm (Pacific Daylight Time)

Venue:
– watch in your own home – from anywhere in the world
– attend in person at Seattle Public Library, 1000 4th Ave, Seattle, WA

Cost:
– US$65 – Unlock the Past in Seattle Livestream
– US$45 – attend in-person at Seattle Public Library, 1000 4th Ave, Seattle, WA
– US$20 – upgrade from in-person attendance to add access all 10 recorded sessions after

The program will feature 10 presentations in two streams – a DNA stream and an Irish/general stream

The presenters – see also presenters page

• BLAINE BETTINGER (USA) – Blaine is a professional genealogist specialising in DNA evidence. He is the author of the long-running blog The Genetic Genealogist and the books The family tree guide to DNA testing and Genetic genealogy.
• DR MAURICE GLEESON (UK) – Maurice was voted Genetic Genealogist of the Year 2015 (SurnameDNA Journal) and Rockstar Genealogist, Ireland 2016 (Anglo-Celtic Connections). He runs a variety of Y-DNA Surname projects and organises the DNA Lectures at Genetic Genealogy Ireland.
• CYNDI INGLE (USA) – Cyndi is the creator and owner of the award-winning web site Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet cyndislist.com, a categorised index to more than 333,000 online resources. In its first three years, Cyndi’s List was voted the best genealogy site.
• WAYNE SHEPHEARD (Canada) – A retired geologist, Wayne now spends most of his time on family history research. This has resulted in the pioneering publication Surviving Mother Nature’s tests: The effects climate change and other natural phenomena have had on the lives of our ancestors.

Details and bookings – www.utpinseattle.com.

About Unlock the Past
Australian based Unlock the Past was established in 2009. It is the event and publishing division of Gould Genealogy & History which has served family and local historians since 1976. It is a collaborative venture involving an international team of expert speakers, writers, organisations and commercial partners to promote history and genealogy through innovative major events and a new publishing brand. It also maintains general and events directories online. Since 2010 Unlock the Past has run over 130 events, including expos, roadshows, regional seminars, history and genealogy cruises around the world – even Australia’s first ever battlefield tour. They’ve published over 100 guide books and handy guides for researchers, all of them offered in print and ebook editions.

Further information
Alan Phillips
p: +61 8 8263 2055
e: alan@unlockthepast.com.au
w: www.utpinseattle.com
w: www.unlockthepastcruises.com