Gendisasters (http://www.gendisasters.com) collects newspaper accounts of disasters of all types. While searching for a death record for George Smith, who was last recorded on 16 February 1892 in Canandaigua, New York on the 1892 New York State Census with his wife. I also knew he was a Professor at the Normal School in Maryland and that he had died by 1900. A search on FindAGrave yields 1,892 matches for a George Smith in New York and another 445 for Maryland. A Google search brought me to this site where we find that he died in a train accident in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in June 1892. “The wife of Prof. G. R. Smith of the Normal School at Baltimore, Md., who is at Canandaigua, N. Y., was immediately informed of her husband's serious condition...He died in the hospital”

Hint

• The search field is in the upper right corner of the screen, just below Login/Register.

• The site can be browsed by Disaster Type, Year, or State. If you browse by State first, then you can narrow by disaster (lower-right section).

Questions

1. Search Purley Bennett. During what type of disaster did he perish?

2. In what year did the above disaster take place?

3. Search Fred Helverson. He survived what type of disaster?

4. In what city did the above disaster take place?

5. Click Browse by State and choose Idaho. Then narrow by clicking Ice and Snow. Which town had a snowslide in February 1890?

6. Searching Henry O Williams results in 155 hits, but searching “Henry O Williams” narrows the results to one. What year did Henry perish in a plane crash on the Idaho/Utah border?