Before continuing on with our line up of the first Yankee settlers, I wanted to give you three links to some great information and fascinating reading. They are all about the widespread "throat distemper" that began in 1737. This disease is close to my heart because all of the previous 6 or7 siblings of my direct ancestor, Nathaniel Bailey of Newburyport, Mass.)died, as well as his fathers first two wives. His father was the Deacon Edmund Bailey and he survived to marry a third time and have Nathaniel as well as other children.
These history lessons, below, outlines some fascinating details, scope and numbers, along with places, of this awful scourge. I couldn't stop reading until I had finished.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2602079/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2602079/pdf/yjbm00529-0057.pdf
This second link is a little closer to home and may not be so enticing to many of you as it was for me, but it truly does have some great insight into what life was like in New England in the 1700s.
The Centennial Commemoration of Dennysville, Maine has some data on child deaths, leading calamities at the time and so much more.
I promise to get back to listing our ancestors arrival here in New England within the next two weeks.
