In recent years, medical science has made us aware of how some diseases are hereditary. Everything from Alzheimer’s and diabetes to certain heart diseases and cancers are ailments we can inherit from our ancestors.
I don’t mean to scare you, but wouldn’t it be exciting to set up an alternative family tree? You probably won’t be able to go very far back in time, but it could at least be a good start for your descendants. Several church book entries contain a cause of death, often of a medical nature. It could be anything from consumption to heart problems.
Ask your relatives
Interviewing your relatives can also be a good way to find out what the individual relatives have died of, be it old age, pneumonia (consumption), heart disease or something else.
However, it can be taboo or embarrassing for some people to talk about illnesses and disorders in their family. That’s why it can be a strategic move to go ahead and share your own medical history to get the conversation started.
You’ll quickly notice how pushy you can be, but don’t ask too many probing questions.
Since there may be more emotions associated with medical family information than general family information, it may be a good idea to write in keyword form or record the conversation on tape (if the interviewee agrees). If you get too caught up in writing, it can ruin the good conversation and instead create distance between you and the interviewee.
Read also: 65 questions to ask your relatives
Making hereditary diseases visible
To make the medical family tree more interesting and useful for living and future relatives, you can also highlight any hereditary diseases.
Some diseases are more linked to genetic material than others. Norwegian Health Informatics lists the following:
- Heart disease, high blood pressure or high cholesterol
- Stroke
- diabetes
- Cancer
- asthma
- Arthritis/joint pain
- Mental illness
- Kidney disease
- Alcoholism or other abuse
- Congenital defects from birth
- Loss of sight or hearing
- Learning difficulties, possibly mentally retarded
- Abortions and stillbirths
If you need a family tree template to get started, you can find it in our webshop.