Two More Reasons People Should Do Genealogy

I'm going off on a tangent with this one.

The first reason - I've always thought that genealogy should be taught as a required course in school. It should be taught to go along with the history classes. How many kids do you know that are actually interested in history?? Not many. I know very few genealogists who don't have a love of history and their love of history evolved with the search for their ancestors. Once you find out that one of your relatives fought in the Revolutionary War you WANT to find out more about that period of history. I think kids would develop a great love....or at least a better liking.....for history if they knew that one of their ancestors had been involved in a particular time period.

The second reason - my daughter, Chelsea. You see, Chelsea has a very rare medical condition that is genetic. We're not 100% for sure yet - but it's looking more and more like Freidricks Ataxia. The most noticable symptom? She walks like she's drunk all the time.....no balance or coordination. She didn't start to show any symptoms until about age 16.
When you trace your family history it's important to trace the medical genealogy of your family too. When I was 12 I was diagnosed with Graves Disease (Hyperactive Thyroid). I remember the doctor asking my mom and dad who else in the family had Thyroid disease and they both answered "no one that we know of". Thyroid disease is hereditary. It runs with diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.....I got the thyroid problem and my sister has the arthritis....we're just waiting for the diabetes to show up. Remember my last blog when I talked about not knowing my grandfather's sister? Well, guess what.........she had Graves disease too.
If we don't trace the medical genealogy how are we going to know what to warn our kids and grandkids about? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and if they know what to look for maybe they can head off the problem before it gets a good start on their life.