Have
you ever tracked family characteristics? Meaning significant physical
traits such as hair colour, specific features of facial bone
structure, height, mannerisms, and so on. It can also mean health
considerations and illnesses. Hereditary patterns. Realistically, we
can only do this for about three generations including our own.
Sometimes we might have second- or third-hand health information
about earlier ancestors.
In
that vein, cause of death is of great interest for the family
historian; it's a bonus when the certifying authority required the
recording of "contributing factors," which can indicate
longer-term illness or disease.
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| buzzle.com |
Genograms,
similar to genealogy charts, are not merely a sub-interest of family
history or an exercise of mild curiosity. Medical consultants find
them useful among other diagnostic tools. Haven't we all heard: "Do
you have a history of heart disease in your family?" (...
insert diabetes, glaucoma, cancer, etc.) That knowledge clearly could
help with potential future symptoms.
A
more difficult characteristic to (attempt to) trace through a family
is recurring mental illness.
Archaic
euphemisms abound, historically speaking, for what was considered
abnormal behaviour. Samples ―
lunatic, insane, hysteric, idiot, imbecile, maniac, the list
seems endless. (One general reference is Old Disease Names, http://www.homeoint.org/cazalet/oldnames.htm.) Even today we have
dozens of colloquial words to describe someone of odd demeanour or
speech. Of course not everyone who was consigned to an old lunatic
asylum was off-the-wall batshit crazy. Conditions such as post-partum
depression and dementia and autism were not understood and went
untreated. In darker times, a family member could be involuntarily
admitted, virtually imprisoned, simply for being an unwanted
nuisance.
It's
not until the twentieth century that psychiatric diagnostics began to
more precisely label different disorders. An imprecise science, some
might say, as the "disorders" seem to multiply annually.
But psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists and so on do find
genograms useful. Family historians will likely find this type of
chart more difficult to construct with only anecdotal data for
earlier generations ― besides
combing family papers and memorabilia, it calls for sensitive
interviewing. In addition to any hereditary factor, "life
events" during an ancestor's lifetime can also be contributing
factors to illness and/or poor health.
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| genograms.org |
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Genogram
symbols can vary depending on the purpose under study. Many examples of charts can be found online; http://genograms.org/ is one place to
explore.
What
about our DNA? It can carry evidence of medical conditions in
inherited chromosomes but that is not the purview of genealogical
companies that test only for relationship factors. Genetic
counselling clinics are available for potentially serious health
risks and family planning concerns.
Aside
from medical value, creating genograms of our family traits, both
physical and mental, from our own research and knowledge, is a way to
deepen family history insight.
©
2016
Brenda Dougall Merriman
