Thanksgiving: The perfect time to fill out your Family Tree
Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday. It's a holiday that's got a lot going for it. Not only is it a chance to spend time with loved ones and family, but it's got football, good food, and an opportunity for lots of good conversation. Because most families will have many different generations in one place on Thanksgiving Day, it's also the perfect opportunity to interview senior family members about your family's history. The oral history that is shared at holidays like this can be used to create or fill out your family tree.
Sharing Family stories is powerful for several reasons.
1) It begins the process of younger family members knowing where they came from.
2) It allows those of us who are genealogy buffs to uncover another story or two which may not have been mentioned at past gatherings, providing further clues in our search for family-related facts.
3) It is a chance to gather clues to lesser known but equally important side of family history: THE FAMILY MEDICAL HISTORY. As we talk about family members who have passed away, often we will get little bits of information which are valuable in predicting health challenges for our living family members.
For example: a few years ago, in my family, someone recalled that one of my grandmother's had a baby sister who had died very young. Upon further questioning we found that she'd died of pneumonia. At that same time, a cousin was going through a period of Illness with her young child, which was eventually diagnosed as cystic fibrosis-- a rare disease among African Americans. But piecing together, the story of my grandmother's sister caused someone else to remember another earlier ancestor who lost three children to pneumonia. We realized that the cystic fibrosis gene had been showing up in our family every generation or two for many, many generations--the way that many other African American Families have the Sickle Cell trait.
A friend and former co-worker of mine named Karen Pallarito wrote an article which was picked up by FORBES, among others, that suggests that we all add family health history questions to our after-dinner conversation at Thanksgiving. Pallarito suggests that important information can be gleaned on family tendencies toward high cholesterol, diabetes, cancer and heart attack as well as chronic childhood diseases and birth defects.
She pointed out that U.S. health officials are urging us to ask questions: not just about relationships and life stories, but about causes of death and major health challenges. It could have a direct impact on our own health. Everybody, should begin tracing their medical roots this holiday season. Asking relatives to help fill in the blanks of your family medical history could be one of the most important things you do to predict your risk for developing such chronic conditions as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer, as Pallarito reported.
This concept was covered a couple of years ago in Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/ but it can never be repeated enough.
So after dinner find out how your great-grand father died ...and while you are at it, be sure to get another civil rights story from your aunt, and another good war story from your favorite uncle.
See the entire story at the link below:
http://news.healingwell.com/index.php?p=news1&id=522236
Sharing Family stories is powerful for several reasons.
1) It begins the process of younger family members knowing where they came from.
2) It allows those of us who are genealogy buffs to uncover another story or two which may not have been mentioned at past gatherings, providing further clues in our search for family-related facts.
3) It is a chance to gather clues to lesser known but equally important side of family history: THE FAMILY MEDICAL HISTORY. As we talk about family members who have passed away, often we will get little bits of information which are valuable in predicting health challenges for our living family members.
For example: a few years ago, in my family, someone recalled that one of my grandmother's had a baby sister who had died very young. Upon further questioning we found that she'd died of pneumonia. At that same time, a cousin was going through a period of Illness with her young child, which was eventually diagnosed as cystic fibrosis-- a rare disease among African Americans. But piecing together, the story of my grandmother's sister caused someone else to remember another earlier ancestor who lost three children to pneumonia. We realized that the cystic fibrosis gene had been showing up in our family every generation or two for many, many generations--the way that many other African American Families have the Sickle Cell trait.
A friend and former co-worker of mine named Karen Pallarito wrote an article which was picked up by FORBES, among others, that suggests that we all add family health history questions to our after-dinner conversation at Thanksgiving. Pallarito suggests that important information can be gleaned on family tendencies toward high cholesterol, diabetes, cancer and heart attack as well as chronic childhood diseases and birth defects.
She pointed out that U.S. health officials are urging us to ask questions: not just about relationships and life stories, but about causes of death and major health challenges. It could have a direct impact on our own health. Everybody, should begin tracing their medical roots this holiday season. Asking relatives to help fill in the blanks of your family medical history could be one of the most important things you do to predict your risk for developing such chronic conditions as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer, as Pallarito reported.
This concept was covered a couple of years ago in Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/ but it can never be repeated enough.
So after dinner find out how your great-grand father died ...and while you are at it, be sure to get another civil rights story from your aunt, and another good war story from your favorite uncle.
See the entire story at the link below:
http://news.healingwell.com/index.php?p=news1&id=522236
Labels: family medical history, family tree, genealogy, holidays, karen pallarito
posted by Eric J Williams at 5:32 AM
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