Family History and Family Illness

My father and two of my brothers had all died of heart attacks at a fairly young age. My dad and my eldest brother were in their forties, and my younger brother was just thirty two years old.

A Great advantage of knowing about family history is that sometimes it can help you to trace and pinpoint occurrences of illness.

By tracing back my paternal side of the family, I discovered that rarely did any of the males live beyond the age of forty four, and many had died of heart disease before they reached the ripe old age of forty. The females in the family line hardly ever suffered with any heart trouble at all.

It occurred to me that the heart disease in the male line was too frequent to be coincidental, especially as it all seemed to be because of high cholesterol levels, leading to a fatal heart attack.

After I concluded my investigation, I discussed this with a heart disease specialist, and after examining all my research paper work, he called my nephews in for medical checks. In two of my three nephews, he discovered that they had severe cholesterol levels (above the 15 mark) and needed immediate medication.

The information was too late to save my dad and brothers, but at least my nephews are okay.

A different branch of family history, but a useful one.

Pam,
Parish Chest,
http://www.parishchest.com
So the benefits of undertaking a more undepth study of your family history may prove to e life saving

WWII ‘United News’ Newsreels, 1942-1946 Released

Ancestry’s military records are growing. The latest addition to the Ancestry record sets are Video Reels of WWII  footage from “United News” – set up by the States to help, amongst other things, propaganda for WWII.

Unlike the latest record sets launched through Ancestry i.e. Digitised and indexed records, the difference with this collection is that the records sets are actual video footage and are highly engaging to users – whether or not they have a family tree or are currently researching their family history!

Newsreels averaged 10 minutes in length and consist of U.S and European military footage depicting allied military operations and other events from the home front. Much of the footage was taken by military combat photographers and is in excellent condition.

This database contains all 267 issues of the 'United News.’ Some of the more well known WWII events depicted in these newsreels includes:

• Marines Raise Flag Over Iwo Jima
• D-Day
• Japanese Sign Final Surrender
• Invasion of Sicily
• MacArthur Returns to the Philippines