Tricia Scruggs has an article in the McKinney Courier-Gazette (TX), Leaving a Legacy: a gift to future generations, that delves into an area of genealogy that for some genealogists, was their first real taste – medical genealogy. Over the years, I’ve talked to several people who came into genealogy because they were researching their family’s health history.
The article is mainly a discussion of some upcoming classes, but it’s interesting to look at nonetheless.
From the article:
Doctors’ visits often are precluded by a mountain of paperwork requesting not only your health background, but that of parents, grandparents and even aunts and uncles.
Supporters of the Collin County Community College District’s new health information center and staffers at the McKinney Memorial Public Library say that task can become less daunting for those who sign up for Leaving a Legacy, a project of the My Family Health Portrait initiative begun by the Office of the Surgeon General.
“It’s a nice Christmas gift that you can give friends and relatives and it’s also free,†said Lisa Huang, CCCCD’s Allied Health Sciences librarian. “The program is actually constructing your medical genealogy to give to your children or your grandkids or for future generations to come. You’re creating a tree for them.â€
For some of us, knowing our medical genealogy could be very important some day.