Over the years I have filled out not a few questionnaires about my family medical history. You know, the type that asks: Have you or anyone in your family ever suffered from heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, headaches, liver disease, kidney disease, brain-eating zombies, etc. The older I get, the more boxes I seem to be able to check off on these questionnaires. A few years ago I reached the age whereupon AARP invitations began to appear in my mailbox weekly. This is also the age when, at my my yearly check-up, doctors tsk, tsk, tsk at me, telling me to cut back on the mint chip ice cream, lose a few pounds, and exercise more.
The AARP invites and friendly reminders from my doctor eventually got me to thinking, just what has everyone in my ancestry suffered and died from? I opened up a new file in my genealogy software program and entered only birthdates and death dates. In place of my parents and grandparents' names I listed their cause of death and age at death. I was able to gather the causes of death from death certificates, death registers, and obituaries. If there was another medical issue I included it elsewhere under that ancestor's listing. The end result was a simple and very informative pedigree chart showing my family medical history. I could see at a glance the lines where diabetes or heart issues were rampant. It was also easy to see which lines were long lived or tended to suffer early deaths. I sent a copy to each of my siblings and received rave reviews.
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