Family History

[lovemygirl]

Our daughter was diagnosed 5 yrs ago. The paternal grandparents have passed away so we cannot trace back on my husbands side of the family and my father is not present. My mother does not want to get tested because she would feel bad if she knew she had a part in my daughter's illness.
Has anyone been able to trace back the CF in their family, when there was no history? How do you go about it? I am not sure why I am so curious about it all but I guess it is the only answer I feel that there is a chance of getting.
In another unrelated topic it came up that 2 generations ago there was a marriage of 2nd cousins on my husbands side. I now wonder if that may have caused the gene on my husbands side. Does that make sense.

Thanks,

 

[thelizardqueen]

I found out today that CF runs in my mother's father's side of the family. I had a 2nd cousin that passed from it years ago, and found out that one of my uncle's is also a carrier. I'm not too sure about my dad's side. He is a carrier, but I don't know of CF on his side of the family. We're pretty much estranged.

 

[shortie30]

I was adopted and have no idea if there is any cf cases on either
side.  I have been tested and am a carrier. My husband has cf
and had a half brother die from it.  My mother in law falls
into what they call the black hole.  She has it they just
can't find it.  I have talked to my birth mother and father
and neither of them has ever heard of cf or anything about it in
their families.  So don't know what to tell you .<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Marie<br>
Wife of BJ 27 w/cf

 

[thefrogprincess]

You may be able to go back on both sides of the family and find unexplained deaths in infants or young children. But you probably won't get much more than that, especially more than 50 years ago. Before that CF didn't even have a name. But you have to ask yourself what good it would do. You got the gene from someone, so did your husband. Even if there is no known history of CF itself there are bound to be carriers on both sides. Personally, my brother was the first on either side of my family to be diagnosed, then me, then one of my dad's cousin's kids. My brother and I have almost 30 cousins, yet we are the only 2 with CF. We could do an informal and very unscientific poll though. Ask how many people on this site can trace back there family on one side or the other to Jesse James (the outlaw from Missouri). Something like that came up on the off topic forum a while ago and I remember quite a few people who said they were somehow related to him, myself included. It makes sense though, since CF is genetic.

 

[thelizardqueen]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote><i>Originally posted by: <b>thefrogprincess</b></i>

Ask how many people on this site can trace back there family on one side or the other to Jesse James (the outlaw from Missouri).</end quote></div>

Kind of off topic here, but I can trace one side of my family back to 1653. I have the whole family tree and all printed out, its actually pretty cool to look that far back. I'm not entirely sure if anyone else that far back had CF, but it is possible, as some family members died of an unknown respiratory problem. Who knows - maybe pneumonia back then, could very well have been undiagnosed CF.

 

[LouLou]

Liz, That's so cool!! Definitely blog material <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

 

[anonymous]

Out of curiosity, I checked back, too. Not that it makes a difference. No family history here that we can tell. DS's uncle did an extensive family history that goes back to the 1800s and I found a couple young deaths -- turns out the children were electrocuted when a radio fell in the tub. The only unexplained death that I could find was my mother had a stillborn brother. Liza

 

[lovemygirl]

My husband had a nephew that passed away of pneumonia and so his sister got tested after our daughter's diagnosis and she is not a carrier so I don't think tracing back these kinds of deaths proves much, but it is interesting just the same.

 

[lovemygirl]

Karen,
I cannot reply to your message because your set up not to receive private messages. I do not want to reply here because nobody saw your posting.

 

[blindhearted]

I know of unexplained deaths as infants in my family. I know for a fact on my father's side and I think so on my mother's side as well. I know my older, first cousin (mom side) is a carrier. I'm not sure if there are any other carriers, but I'm sure there are. Just no one has been tested. As far as I know I am the only one in my family, past and present, to offically have CF. Which is fine with me. I rather be the only one who has it, than see another family memeber with it.

 

[izemmom]

My dad's sister died in the 80's of "pancreatitis with pulmonary complications." Sound like undiagnosed cf to anyone else? She was a very small woman, sickly all her life and coughed constantly. She also smoked like a chimney, lived into her 50's and had three children. Go figure.

 

[Abby]

My husbands mother had a cousin with cf, he lived into his 30's and was born in the 50's. Pretty good for that generation. As far as we know, he's the only known cf on that side. There are now lots of questions on my side of the family and we've talked about my parents being tested to see who is the carrier. My main concern is that we find out so that my cousins who are having children can be informed. My dad had a sister that died at 3 months old from bowel obstruction so that's a big question mark. When dd's genetic tests came back it said she had one Delta F508 and one 1898+1GA, her cf doctor asked if we were jewish. I guess that gene is found more in the jewish ancestry, so that narrows it down to my moms family. My uncle has traced their ancestry to jewish origins.

As far as ancestry, my dad's family has been traced back to the 1600's and one of the ancestors fought along side a king. I can't remember which king or which war now, but my dad has a lot of the information. It's very interesting and if I had more time I'd do some research of my own.

 

[JazzysMom]

There is no way to trace much on my Mom's side since its so dysfunctional, but my Dad had 2 brothers die at an early age. One died around 10 years old of "pneumonia". Now my Dad was much older & his brothers in ?? were even older which actually made then born in the late 1800's so who knows! Other than that no known CF. A few cousins on my Moms side have been tested to rule out things with health problems, but I am not aware of anyone on my Dads side being tested!

 

[LisaV]

I've been working on the genealogy of our families. Folks are right when they say it is really hard to figure out even from death certificates. On my husband's side one grandmother is said to have died from asthma in her 20s (kids still young) while a family story has his father pulling mucus out of his mother's throat (that would be my husband's other randmother's ) and a half-brother dying of TB. No mention of CF anywhere, yet clearly it was there.

Future generations won't be much better off on some things. My husband's death certificate doesn't mention Marfan syndrome or bronchiectasis. It starts with the sepsis and liver failure and says he had those for days, then says COPD for years. These days when folks see COPD they think emphysema from smoking, yet his COPD was bronchiectasis from whatever.

I think about the only thing you can do is to let eveyone know that your family member has CF and suggest that all other living family members see a genetic counselor if they are planning on having bioloical children.

It is interesting to wonder about all of our ancestors though, isn't it.