First of all, GeneWeaver for Windows is not a genealogy program like many of the other programs reviewed in past newsletters. However, this program should appeal to many genealogists and is a natural addition to one’s family tree searches. GeneWeaver is a program for recording and plotting one’s family health history. Such a tool is useful for plotting inherited medical conditions. I am told that almost every family has inherited medical conditions although most people don’t know that they do! GeneWeaver can help. The program can help predict medical problems before they arise. In the most extreme case, it could even save lives.

Quoting from GeneWeaver’s Web site:

Tired of sitting in your doctor's office trying to remember all your family operations and illnesses so you can complete that medical history form they shoved at you?

Can't remember when you broke your leg as a youngster?

Or how old Grandma was when she died?

Geneweaver^® can solve that problem for you!

It is with some misgivings that I write about GeneWeaver. I am a genealogist and a computer techie, not a medical or genetics expert. Please keep this in mind as you read the following review of this new program: this review is written by a genetics newcomer. However, if you, too, qualify as a "genetics newcomer," this may be more helpful to you than a review written by a geneticist.

Installation of GeneWeaver was rather simple. I was asked for a serial number as well as registration information, including name, mailing address, and e-mail address. The program then asked if it was okay to post this to the Web site. I first wondered if my personal information was being posted publicly, but a bit of investigation soon calmed my fears. In fact, the registration works just like may other online registrations; the data is sent to a private database at Genes & Things, Inc., the producers of GeneWeaver. My personal information was not posted in public. (Hint to Genes & Things: You might want to change that wording a bit on your next release.)

Since this program will appeal to anyone researching their family tree, GeneWeaver also includes a complete copy of the Legacy 3.0 genealogy program on the same CD-ROM disk. During installation of GeneWeaver, the user is asked if he or she would also like to install Legacy. I already had Legacy installed on my system, so I elected to not add it again. However, I see this as an excellent addition for the person who is not a genealogist and buys GeneWeaver for medical tracking purposes. The user gets both a genetics program and a genealogy program at the same time. I later discovered that GeneWeaver keeps its data in an FDB file that is compatible with Legacy 3.0.

Upon starting GeneWeaver for the first time, the program asked if I wanted to open an existing file, start a new family file, or import a GEDCOM file. While this may not be a genealogy program, it does have the capability to read GEDCOM (Genealogy Data COMmunications) files in the same manner as most genealogy programs. Since I already had a GEDCOM file available of my ancestors and most of my relatives, I elected to import that instead of entering all the data about these people from the keyboard. Admittedly, I don’t have medical information on all the people in my GEDCOM file, but it did seem like a good method of entering basic data. The GEDCOM import added names, dates and places and a bit of other information. However, the file obviously did not contain the medical information required, so I started entering that data manually within GeneWeaver.

The program has a Web browser look and feel. Data entry was easy and intuitive although I received a few surprises. The first surprise came when entering "Race/Ethnicity." Most of the expected racial groups were there along with several ethnic groups that seemed to overlap. For instance, there was a selection for Caucasian as well as another for "British/Welsh/Irish" and still another for "French-Canadian" as well as one more for "Northern European." Then I noticed that, while there is an entry for "British/Welsh/Irish," there is no entry for "Scottish." Of course, in my case it is a bit difficult to pick only one group, as my father was "British/Welsh/Irish" while my mother was "French-Canadian." I am sure that many millions of Americans will have two or more possible entries for that field. Later reading in the manual cleared up some of the confusion. It seems that Northern Europeans have a higher level of cystic fibrosis than other ethnic groups, so it is worthwhile to denote that heritage separately. Similarly, French-Canadians have a higher level of hemochromatosis than other ethnic groups. Therefore it makes sense that you would want to trace these factors in your medical family tree.

Many of the data entry fields in GeneWeaver were ones I would have expected to see. These fields included cause of death, circumstances of death, travel to foreign countries, military service, hair color, eye color, blood type, smoking history (including whether the person lived with a smoker), surgeries, accidents, disabilities, allergies, and a very long list of medical conditions. However, I was surprised to see a data entry field for political affiliation. I wonder if Republicans have different medical conditions than Democrats? Or is membership in either political party symptomatic of a medical abnormality? Data entry in most fields is optional; you can always leave the information blank.

I entered all sorts of data for myself, then moved on to my parents and siblings. Data entry was very easy although somewhat tedious as I went through many screens of data fields for each person. Finding that it was easier to pick a particular medical condition, I quickly entered cancer information into the records of every relative that I know was ever diagnosed with the disease. Then I went back and did the same for diabetes and then again for strokes. I found it easier to recall medical problems this way, and the data entry seemed to go a lot faster.

Genes & Things, Inc. recommends entering all known data for four generations of the family. If you can find most of the pertinent information about yourself, your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, along with as many of their siblings as possible, you have an excellent chance of determining inherited medical conditions. Do not be discouraged, however, if you do not have all that information available. Very few people can fill out all the medical information about their grandparents and great-great-aunts and great-great-uncles! Fill in whatever you can. You will be able to obtain meaningful reports from the data of a few individuals. Then, as you discover more information about family members, you can always add more details. Over a period of time, you can improve the quality of your database and the data derived.

Of course, the true test of a program like this rests in the reports. What can it tell you about the likelihood of you inheriting a medical condition? Or perhaps someone else in your family is encountering such problems? GeneWeaver creates two reports that shed light on these questions: Medical Pedigrees and Genograms.

A medical pedigree is a four-generation pedigree chart showing death dates, ages, and primary and secondary causes of death. In fact, it looks almost the same as a pedigree chart produced by most genealogy programs. The one major difference is that GeneWeaver’s medical pedigree charts list causes of death. You can see an example of GeneWeaver’s Medical Pedigree report at: www.geneweaveronline.com/pedigree.htm.

GeneWeaver’s other report type, the genogram, is quite different from a genealogy report and will require some explanation. It is a symbolic map showing patterns of family relationships, ages, diseases, and traits. Quoting from GeneWeaver’s Help file:

A medical genogram uses symbols and lines representing people and relationships to display family health information graphically and facilitate recognition of disease patterns recurring across several generations. It is a "road map" that allows you to see your family in a bigger picture, both historically and currently. It is a practical and efficient way to track gene-related illnesses.

The genogram concept was developed in the 1970s by Dr. Murray Bowen, a family therapist, as a tool to help unravel relationships between family members. Clinical psychologists and others working with family dynamics have used genograms since then. The medical community recently began to use genograms to present and analyze family health and genetic relationships, and they have found them to be a reliable and efficient method.

Most medical professionals are quite familiar with genograms. The next time you have a physical, take along a genogram report of your ancestors and all their siblings! It will help the doctor quickly focus on your medical history. An example of GeneWeaver’s Genogram Report can be found at: www.geneweaveronline.com/genogram.htm. One warning: If you are as unfamiliar with genograms as I am, such a chart will not be meaningful to you. However, I am assured that medical professionals know how to read these. You, too, can learn to read them within a few minutes by first reading some tutorials.

GeneWeaver will also print a blank four-page health questionnaire suitable for recording information about relatives, living or deceased. Once filled in, the information on this questionnaire can be entered into GeneWeaver. The program will also print a bibliography of family health history and genetics publications and a checklist of health information resources.

GeneWeaver ships with a printed one-hundred-and-twenty-one-page user’s manual. Printed manuals are becoming rare these days; most companies now ship manuals in electronic format on the same CD-ROM disk as the program. I was pleased to see a printed manual for GeneWeaver. The first forty-four pages are a "must read" for genetics newcomers like myself. These pages describe the reasons why you want to track your family’s health history. It describes the differences between recessive genes and dominant genes. It also talks about ethnic genetic disorders and about how to record information in a standardized manner that is quickly understood by the medical community. The remainder of the manual describes the use of the software: how to install it, enter data, and run reports.

Is this a program for you? The GeneWeaver Web site lists the following reasons why Geneweaver can be a great tool for you:

1. The American Medical Association recommends every family should maintain a family health history. 
2. Provides health care workers with the background information they need to give you and your family appropriate preventive health care, diagnosis and medical treatment. 
3. Invaluable during stressful emergencies when important information is easily forgotten, when sick patients are too ill to remember, and when family members are too overwhelmed or stressed to give accurate data. 
4. Allows the user to take a proactive role in health care: 
5. Follow good preventive health care 
6. Watch for early warning signs of illness with regular monitoring tests 
7. Make informed life choices 
8. Help future generations take full advantage of new medical discoveries 
9. Educates the user about the family health history concept. Genetic factors are known to underlie all aspects of health and disease. 
10. Guides the user with information about how and where to find health and medical information. 
11. Easy to understand and use. 
12. Far superior to the tedious use of rulers, templates, pencils and papers which have formerly been employed to create a family health history and a health genogram.  
13. Created by professional genealogists for use by genealogists, health care professionals, and anyone who is concerned about family health issues or who is unsure of how to go about creating a family health history and health genogram. 
14. Allows genealogists to contribute to the good of the family by providing another way of using vast databases, research skills, and commitment to preserving family information.

All in all, I was quite pleased with GeneWeaver. Even this genetics novice was able to see patterns in the family tree. I expect to be visiting relatives over the upcoming holidays and will be carrying along some of the blank health questionnaires that GeneWeaver produces. I will be asking questions about the health problems of those deceased family members that I never knew very well.

GeneWeaver does not have the "pizzazz" that you see in many other computer programs. It doesn’t have multimedia reports, a Web interface, or fancy graphics. In fact, the subject it addresses seems to be a bit dry for many people. Nonetheless, people today are becoming aware of inherited medical conditions. Many of them are seeking information about their family’s medical heritage. GeneWeaver will be a very useful tool for each of those seekers. I suspect that Genes & Things, Inc. will sell a lot of copies of this program.

GeneWeaver 1.0 requires a PC running Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000 or XP. It also requires 25 megabytes of hard drive space, a double-speed or faster CD-ROM drive and at least 16 megabytes of RAM memory.

GeneWeaver sells for $49.95 (U.S. funds). As I write these words, the program is not yet available. However, Genes & Things, Inc. expects to start shipment within the next few days. For more information about GeneWeaver 1.0, look at: www.geneweaveronline.com.

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