Family Lines, history, etc??

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

BIGMAN131307

BIGMAN131307

Veteran
Messages
3,665
Reaction score
195
Points
178
Has anyone here, or know anyone that has done their family tree?

More specifically have you ever tried Ancestry.com or AncestryDNA ??

If so, what was your experience with the site? Did you get your moneys worth? Have you had any problems with misc. people calling you? Was it worth the time and money?


Thx, :)
 
I have no experience with those sites, but many decades ago my maternal grandmother spent a lot of time at the library researching our family tree long before the Internet.

I'm related to the 4th president of the United states, James Madison. Kinda cool. :)
 
Didn't they wear wigs back then like your dog? :roflmao:

A few years ago my dad was working on our family tree. He was using free web sites. I'll ask him what they were and let you know what he thought of them.
 
My (approximately) 250,000-greats-grandparent was a creature from which all humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos are directly descended- and so was yours :)
 
What I'd like to see is how strong my connection is to my ancestry.

I know the basics, but would like to find how much of connection I have to each.

For example I already know that I'm part Irish (father side), Native American (mother side),
French (mother side), and possibly Canadian (mother side) because of area of the country my mothers side comes from.
 
Last edited:
BIGMAN131307 said:
I know the basics, but would like to find how much of connection I have to each.
Click to expand...

It's pretty much only the basics that my dad found from the web sites that he used so they probably won't be any good for you.
 
This was so cool...

When the kids were younger, we belonged to a local camping club. One of the families had the same last name of my mother-in-laws maiden name. They had an actual hardback book on that family line. We were actually in it! Very small world.

I've been able to google my paternal grandmothers family tree, but it's impossible to find anything on my paternal grandfather who died before I was born. All the records in Czechoslovakia got destroyed during WW2. :(
 
valeriedl said:
It's pretty much only the basics that my dad found from the web sites that he used so they probably won't be any good for you.
Click to expand...

That's all I'd like to find. I don't care to be another "King Ralph". But if I'm connected to "William Wallace" then that's ok. lol :)

CathyAnn31 said:
This was so cool...

When the kids were younger, we belonged to a local camping club. One of the families had the same last name of my mother-in-laws maiden name. They had an actual hardback book on that family line. We were actually in it! Very small world.

I've been able to google my paternal grandmothers family tree, but it's impossible to find anything on my paternal grandfather who died before I was born. All the records in Czechoslovakia got destroyed during WW2. :(
Click to expand...

:) Great having a book to connect with. But it's too bad you can't check your other side much. :(
 
What was the evolutionary benefit of having epilepsy that allowed it to survive?

Like when we were still hunter & gatherers, how did this illness survive? Or was it just so common back then?

Later on I could see how religion may have played a enormous role in letting folk with epilepsy survive while others were killed, tortured, "fixed" etc for being different.
 
Last edited:
George, mostly E is a condition- a result of trauma or infection.- not an 'illness' caused by genetic mutation and passed down.

Having said that, children of mothers with E have a 3-9% and of fathers 1.5-3% chance of developing it after such events, and the usual chance is about 1%.

Recently, a few types of seizure conditions have been linked to genes, and it is thought these genes maybe causing neurons to be more prone to excitability and thus more prone to seizures.

The 'problem' with genes is that while having 1 set of genes may reduce survivability, some of the genes in that pattern, when grouped with other genes, may cause something beneficial to it!

There is a concept in evolution known as trade-offs. If having 1 set of genes causes a benefit which leads to being more prone to survive, those genes will stay- even if 1 or more of those genes when combined with other genes present, does not. As long as the probability of survival is slightly greater than the probability of not surviving, they'll stick around.

Just because a person is more prone to E, it does not mean that they won't be able to reproduce and thus potentially pass on the genes that make them more prone to it, it may just reduce the probability slightly.

One might argue that the very gene mutation that causes excitability of neurons which may lead to greater susceptibility, may also provide (lets say faster fight/flight responses, or better capability of lateral thinking for example) and thus be beneficial.

I hope that makes sense. IANAD so don't shoot me if that info isn't 100% accurate :)
 
Last edited:
Quite intresting this,watched a programe on King Tut and how he died.Through the appliance off science they have traced his family tree,who were known to have religious visions.Since the Egyptians believed in keeping royal blood in the family as it kept it pure,the very opposite as we know now.

But to cut this down due to the fractures on Tuts bod they now think it was a fall from suffering from Temperol Lobe Epilepsy that killed him,ie bad fracture off the knee,infection,death.

Oh and yes i have had my family tree done,not related to anyone famous.But intresting all the same.
 
Last edited:
Have you got a title for that so I can d/l? Was it a NOVA/Horizon/BBC etc doc? Sounds like something I'd watch :)

Not having seen it, I'm wondering how they know the fracture wasn't just caused by a random accident :ponder:
 
Last edited:
Nw, got it - "Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered" - downloading now :)
 
Last edited:
I thought it was quite good,im sure you will enjoy it Slim.
 
Ta, I do like my docs :)

Just to get the thread back on track- I haven't traced my family line, but I'm half English/French, and on the froggy side there's also German, Polish and Italian mixed in.

I guess as well, on the English side, everyone seemed to invade us in the past- so that side's probably very mixed as well, if I went back far enough..

So I'm a bit of a mongrel lol
 
Maybe epilepsy was much more common then back when we were hunter and gatherers
 
Perhaps,especially with no medication therefore causing a lot more seizures and also a lack off understanding as has been mentioned above.
 
Crash said:
Perhaps,especially with no medication therefore causing a lot more seizures and also a lack off understanding as has been mentioned above.
Click to expand...

Not just that, we probably had concussions and other damages trying to fight for our lives against predators

Homo sapiens are weak :lol:
 
Yeah your right on that Sabre Tooth Tiger v Wooden Stick.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom