More than 41,000 people died from the scourge of yellow fever in New Orleans between the years 1817 (the first year that reliable statistics are available; surely there were deaths in earlier times) and 1905 (the Crescent City's last epidemic). The number of fatalities ranged from none in years that the plague spared New Orleans to more than a thousand in nine of the eighty-eight years of the fever's activity.

We often hear from genealogical researchers that their ancestor(s) died in the epidemic of 18__, and that they would like to search the records of that year's fever season. We know from experience, however, that family tradition or other sources sometimes err in identifying a given year as one of epidemic significance. Our first step is usually to consult George Augustin's History of Yellow Fever (New Orleans, 1909), a thick volume that chronicles the year-by-year yellow fever numbers for the Crescent City--and for the rest of the world as well.

With the assistance of volunteer Lea Gaines we have extracted the New Orleans numbers from Augustin's listings. We offer them here as a quick reference for researchers interested in identifying the fever's impact on the city in a given year.

For researchers, both genealogists and historians, interested in identifying fever victims, the Louisiana Division and City Archives offers a number of records, though not online. Death certificates, cemetery interments, Charity Hospital, Hotel Dieu, & Touro Infirmary registers, and records of the Orleans Parish Coroner are all available. For more information on these materials see Genealogical Materials in the Louisiana Division and New Orleans City Archives. For historical accounts of the fever see the Library's online catalog (do a subject word search for "yellow fever"), accessible from our home page.