Before the SugarHouse Casino opened its doors to gaming enthusiasts along the Delaware River in 2010, the property was the site of a major sugar refinery that operated for more than a century.

Polio, as infantile paralysis came to be known in the 20th century, has a significant place in the history of Pennsylvania. The commonwealth was hit hard in the large 1916 polio epidemic that affected the northeastern United States. When Dr. Jonas Salk established a virology laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh in 1947, Pennsylvania soon became a major center of research on the poliovirus that led to the first successful vaccine against the disease in 1955.

In 1793, yellow fever devastated Philadelphia, then the nation’s capital. “To see the hearse go by is now so common that we hardly take notice of it;…we live in the midst of death,” wrote the 22-year-old Isaac Heston shortly before contracting the illness and dying.

Inspired to begin researching your Irish heritage? You’ll need more than luck! Here are a few tips to get you started in your search.