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Diabetes Genealogy

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Has anyone used Genes Reunited and if so on a subscription basis (which one) or pay per view - what information do you get for your money?
 
Sugarbum said:
Hi Cate,

Sorry, just reading back through the thread again- this is facinating! I take it this is one of the certs that you have a copy of? Did it give you any further information? My understanding is it didnt really start to appear as a certifiable cause of death until mid to late 1800's and appearing as such on certs until about that time, even though the term has been around for much longer. I'm curious to know the approximate year of the death of your GGGF, its really interesting. Especially as we even see now, the prevalence of Type 1 presenting in an older population later than ever before, so back then to see a death at age 44 must have been considered unusual? I'm gripped 😉

BTW....I wish the certs were still ?7! Lets start a campaign! 🙂
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I wish the certs were still ?7 too! Especially as my MIL has just asked me to research her family tree for her, it could get expensive...

My GGGF was called Thomas, he died in 1888 of "(1) Diabetes Mellitus (2) Phthisis" (which is TB) - so the diabetes is clearly given pride of place under cause of death. The death cert didn't give me much more info than that, other than the location, which was the Tewkesbury workhouse in Gloucester.

He was a bricklayer by trade, so I imagine that the TB and diabetes meant he couldn't do the work as it's pretty physical stuff, so had nowhere to go but the workhouse. His wife went into service, and his daughter went to live with her aunt and uncle. We don't know where his son ended up - possibly Canada, and there's an interesting Canadian census record that I'm following up...but I also have 2 letters written by Thomas's wife to the local police saying her son had been taken against their wishes, so who knows!

Sometimes the informant's name on the death cert can be useful, as it's normally a family member - this time it was one of the workhouse staff from what I can tell.

Lucy - if you use a website like Ancestry or Genes Reunited then you can create family trees on there. Family Historian has a good tree drawing section, but it is relatively expensive to buy - though you might find an old version on ebay maybe if you wanted.
 
There is this software - no use if you use an Apple

http://www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder

The software is free - but they charge if you want to upload a tree with more than 250 people (that number keeps being reduced). However, if you just want to keep the tree on your computer you can add as many people as you like. It allows you to run all kinds of reports.
 
I really feel hooked by this and sadly I have just realised I don't know my grandparents names on my fathers side due to him being adopted. I do know he found out his mum was in a hospital for the mentally ill just before she died, but thought he was his brother when he went to see her. It would be good to go down my dads line as I really miss him since he died in 2002 and although very close, now realise he never talked about his mum and dad.
 
Ellie Jones said:
Even though I got my ancestory has been done it was done by my BIL, I would love to research Les's family so if you could only afford one research site, which one would people reccommend as being the most usefull to start with?
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I would recommend Ancestry.co.uk or Ancestry.com (depends where you live but they are both the same site) 🙂

when I first started doing my family history I had to go to the archives and/or the parish churches to view any records!! there was nothing online LOL. sites such as Ancestry has made my research easier and cheaper as I don't need to travel around the country staying at B&Bs while I do my research.... it has made us all into armchair researchers. but there is nothing like going to an ancestor's village (or town) and walking around, looking and getting a feel of what it might have been like in the past... walking from where their house was to where their place of work was or the school etc

whatever way you decide to do your research remember.................. it is sooooooooooo adictive..... and you may find you have been sitting at your computer researching for 6 hours without even realising 😱 I've been to the archives at 9am....... and the assistant has told me they were closing and I would have to go............. and I had no idea that it was 5pm!!!
 
I was lucky to have my great uncle around, at 100 he's a great resource and we also have a file of family documents going back to the 1860s that includes births deaths and marriages. My mother collected them all when she was researching our family history. Dad's family was a bit harder as we have no idea who his dad was - his name may have been William Kennedy, but contacts on that side were able to fill in a lot of the gaps for my grandmother's family. The results was no diabetics of any variety with the possible exception of a great-great uncle on the MacLean side who died of 'pancreatic failure' at the age of 8 in 1880. Whatever it was he had, it came on fast and he died within nine months.

We're lucky too in that mother's family has been based here in and around Inverness since 1746 and is easy to track back, having come originally from Mull. Dad's family lived in a small area of Aberdeenshire around a village called Brig o Marnoch (two houses and a post office - now closed - and if you blink you'll miss it) and were equally easy to find.

I'm now living in a house which is three down and one round the corner from the one I was born in where my gran lived all her married life. My best mate and I used to joke that she was related to one half of the town and me the other half. As far as we can work out we're not actually related to each other, but if it's called MacLean, Fraser or Chisholm around here it's probably a cousin of mine.

There's a chance of course that the diabetes comes in from my unknown grandfather, but we'll never know. And since I bear very little resemblance to my dad, I got his nose and that's it, who was a skinny little thing and apparently took after the mystery man, I don't think it's a very strong chance. Genetically I'm almost pure MacLean.
 
AlisonM said:
...The results was no diabetics of any variety with the possible exception of a great-great uncle on the MacLean side who died of 'pancreatic failure' at the age of 8 in 1880. Whatever it was he had, it came on fast and he died within nine months.
...
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I'm pretty sure they didn't know of the part the pancreas played in diabetes at that time (but I could be wrong, without looking it up!).
 
Northerner said:
I'm pretty sure they didn't know of the part the pancreas played in diabetes at that time (but I could be wrong, without looking it up!).
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I hope none of you are eating or about to. This is horrid, so don't read it if you're of a nervous disposition.
















From what Great Uncle Tommy can recall of the story my Great Granddad told him (GG was only four when his brother died) the poor child's pancreas turned septic and rotted away and he died in dreadful pain. He had surgery to remove part of it but that did no good of course, in fact it probably made things worse for the poor little scrap. The cause of the infection is a mystery, but it wasn't cancer.
 
My Grandma threw out a pile of photos way before I got into genealogy. She made some comment to my Mum that no one would know who they were there once she was gone. Mum wishes she had offered to take them off her hands. However, she did keep some really good things - there is my Granddad's permit to reenter the US - he lived there from the mid 20s till the depression hit, he never did go back. The US records for the 1930 census are available so I have him on it.

If anyone downloads the myheritage software - the date defaults to US format - there is a way to change it - but its not obvious.

You need to select tools,then options, then dates.
Look for standard calendar and change the field settings from %m% %d% %y% to %d% %m% %y%. Then you will be able to enter dates in a UK format.
 
Legacy is a good program for recording your data. I use it and it is free unless you want the deluxe version. but it is a good idea to find the free ones to try some out to see which one you like before purchasing the full version. but do make sure they can export a gedcom file so that all your inputting wouldn't be in vain 😱
 
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