Researching family history can improve your health
Did you know that genealogy can improve your health? I have seen an improvement in my mental and physical health as a result of researching my family history, and I bet it can help many of you as well!
By Nina Brawn
Family Searcher
When I was growing up, no one in my family paid much attention to their health. Our version of preventive medicine was to dress warmly during cold season. No one discussed major health issues. Visits to the doctor were only for when your were really sick! (I haven’t found the proof yet, but I think we were descended from ostriches.) We also never dealt with death very well, we didn’t feel comfortable discussing mortality, attending funerals, or facing grief issues. This kind of denial made us more vulnerable because funeral wishes were unknown, wills were often not made … well you get the picture.
Then my sister Cindy and I began doing genealogy. As we ordered death certificates, and learned the stories of their lives, we began to understand that someday we would be the great-great-grandparents who were unknown. We knew the truth of that saying: “A hundred years from now, what difference will it make?” Major events of my life will be anecdotes to future generations.
This process helped us to put our own lives and problems in perspective. Now I stress less about everything. I accept death as inevitable and know that I can’t avoid the pain of loss, and I cherish the lives that have touched my own. I now celebrate every single birthday and I am happy to say that by the time you read this I will have reached fifty-six.
But how can genealogy help you physically? We began noticing health patterns or, more specifically. “ill-health” patterns. Five generations of women in my mother’s line died in their 60s! Cindy and I drew up a chart of about half dozen most common health issues. We listed our relatives and marked an “X” in each column (a colored “X” if it was a cause of death). The results were startling, significant, and scary! Now we had it in black and white, easy to understand, undeniable terms. What the doctors had been saying was true; “things run in families”.
I had known that was true, and I knew I had these health issues in my background. But seeing it like this really made me know it about me. I am now taking better care of myself because of it. I want to break the mold and live to be 80! It has made an impact on some of my family who were most reticent in discussing family health issues and naming diseases. They are more forthcoming, so that we have begun a chart of my siblings, and their children as well. We are seeing patterns that give us ammunition to battle before the problems get out of hand.
I have great hopes for a better future for my children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. All because of genealogy! I hope your research will lead you and your family to longer lives and better health.
Editor’s note: This column is sponsored by the Aroostook County Genealogical Society. The group meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at the Cary Medical Center’s Chan Education Center, 163 Van Buren Road, Caribou, at 6:30 p.m. Guests and prospective members are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501. Columnist Nina Brawn of Dover-Foxcroft has been doing genealogy for over 30 years, is a freelance genealogy researcher, speaker and teacher. Reader e-mails are welcome at ninabrawn@gmail.com.
