So, I’ve been absent for months as life took over but have decided to make an effort to get back into it.
The prompt of ’cause of death’ was a easy one for me as one particular ancestor’s cause of death has given me a lot of thought recently as to my own lifestyle and health. I was recently looking back over some certificates, looking for any missed clues as I did some more research on my mother’s family. I was looking at the death certificate of my great, great grandmother Elizabeth Hartley nee Brownlow, not really expecting to see anything different, when the cause of death jumped out at me from the paper. She had died from a coma as a result of Diabetes Mellitus. As she was 72 years of age at her death, I think it’s safe to say that she suffered from Type 2 diabetes, which is a mature onset form of the disease usually caused by diet and lifestyle choices.
Elizabeth Brownlow-Hartley (Death)-1xnb78w
This really shocked me, as Type 2 diabetes is something that is discussed quite a bit in my family. My mother has Type 2 diabetes as did her mother (my maternal grandmother). As a result, I know quite a bit about the disease and know that I fall into a high risk category as both my mother and grandmother ended up with the disease. However, no one in the family realised that the disease went so far back in our family history. My mother never knew this ancestor of ours as she died long before my mother was even thought of, but as a result of finding out that this woman likely had type 2 diabetes as did my grandmother prompted my mother to hypothesise that perhaps her grandmother (my great grandmother) had the disease as well.
With some further digging into my great grandmother, looking at photographs and her death certificate, I have found that she was a very large woman and that at the time of her death she was suffering from sleep apnoea which is common in individuals with type 2 diabetes. My mother lived with her grandmother as a child, and remembers the amount of food that they ate and how much of it was fatty food. Poor diet is a number one risk factor in developing type 2 diabetes, as is being overweight or obese as well as genetic factors such as a parent or other close relative having the disease. Therefore, it is likely that my great grandmother suffered from the disease as well.
This is one instance where my family history research has proved to be of practical use, in providing me with information about diseases which are prevalent in my family. It has also proved of interest to others in my family and set off warning bells in my head to change my diet and lifestyle whilst I am still young enough to prevent developing the disease.