GeneWeaver is not a genealogy program. Instead, it is a genealogy-based family health history program. GeneWeaver is used to create a family health history and medical genogram. As a result, it can often identify potential risks in advance of the appearance of symptoms. In some cases, GeneWeaver can even save lives.

Here is the announcement from Genes & Things, Inc.:

Genes & Things, Inc.
P.O. Box 5402
Plymouth, MI 48170-5402
www.geneweaveronline.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Plymouth, MI, December 6, 2001—Genes & Things, Inc., a Michigan corporation, is proud to announce the release of its new product GeneWeaver™, a genealogy-based family health history computer software program. GeneWeaver™ was 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 medical genogram.

The American Medical Association recommends every family maintain a family health history. A family can learn much about its future by examining its past since genetic factors are known to underlie all aspects of health and disease. GeneWeaver™ can assist in providing health care workers with the background information they need to give individuals and families appropriate preventive health care, diagnosis, and medical treatment.

GeneWeaver™, a Windows-based program, has the ability to generate the following printable charts/tables:

• A medical genogram
• A medical pedigree chart
• A blank four-page health questionnaire
• A bibliography of family health history and genetics publications
• A checklist of health information resources

GeneWeaver™ is easy to use and understand with a Web browser look and feel. The program allows the user to input family information using either a GEDCOM import or manual entry. The health wizard facilitates the entry of medical information into predetermined fields using a health history questionnaire. The user is able to select an illness from a modern medical terms list or find the meaning of an obscure term in the outdated medical terms list in Help. Multiple databases can be created. The 102-page GeneWeaver™ manual (hardcopy and included in online Help), written in everyday language, educates the user about the family health history concept and discusses how and where to find health and medical information. An extensive list of medical and health record sources is provided. Free technical support is available to registered users either online or through corporate offices.

The health history, medical pedigree, and/or medical genogram reports generated by using GeneWeaver™ can be 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. In addition, health information gathered into GeneWeaver™ can allow the user to take a proactive role in health care by following good preventive health care, watching for early warning signs of illness with regular monitoring tests, making informed life choices, and helping future generations take full advantage of new medical discoveries.

Genes & Things, Inc. was established in 1999 by well-known professional genealogists Norma Storrs Keating, RN, BSN, and Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, CGRS, CGL. Keating has twenty-eight years of experience in genealogical research and is the owner and CEO of Your Family Connection, in Yorba Linda, CA. Her lecture presentation entitled "Putting the Gene Back in Genealogy" was developed after in-depth research into the topics of family health histories, genograms, genetics, The Human Genome Project, and inherited traits. Kerstens has twenty-three years of experience in genealogical research and public relations. She is owner and CEO of Ancestor Detective, LLC, in Plymouth, MI. She is the creator of the software program Clooz®- an electronic filing cabinet for genealogical records, the managing editor of Ancestry.com’s Genealogical Computing magazine, and a frequent contributor to Ancestry magazine.

I hope to get my hands on a copy of GeneWeaver soon and write a review of its operation. I must say I am especially looking forward to documenting a couple of inherited conditions within my family that some of my relatives recently discovered. A tool such as GeneWeaver should be a big help in identifying the relatives likely to inherit these medical problems.

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