Along
Those Lines
"I
Told You I Was Sick"
by
George G. Morgan
Cemeteries
are places that genealogists visit frequently,
both for research and for paying homage to our
ancestors who are interred there. Over the years
I have visited literally hundreds of cemeteries,
memorial gardens, mausoleums, and monuments. If
you ever get the chance to visit Key West, Florida,
you must visit the Key West Cemetary. No, I didn't
misspell that word; that's the way it's spelled
on the arched wrought-iron gate at the entrance
to one of the most interesting cemeteries in the
world. It is the burying ground for some extremely
interesting--and eccentric--personalities. Among
them is the crypt in which B. P. Roberts is interred
and on which is a stone tablet inscribed with the
telling epitaph, "I told you I was sick." Learn more
about this fascinating cemetery at http://keywest.com/cemetery.html.
One of the challenges of tracing our family history
is in placing family members into geographical, historical,
and social context. This means poring over and comparing
contemporary and historical maps. It entails reading
and studying histories at all levels--local, state,
national, and international--in order to understand
the events, both mundane and momentous, that influenced
our ancestors' lives. We also have to consider the
personal events in the lives of our ancestors and
their contemporaries that contributed to the larger
picture.
Diseases
and physical ailments were potentially catastrophic
in other eras. Before the introduction of antibiotics,
the "wonder drugs," and
vaccines that have eradicated many diseases from
our lives, our forebears suffered and succumbed
to a wide variety of illnesses. Many of these would
be treatable today. My Great-grandfather Rainey
B. Morgan died at age 41 of an infection resulting
from a boil. My Great-grandmother Holder died at
age 66 of pneumonia. And one of her sons, a great-uncle,
Luther Moffet Holder, succumbed at age 32 to the
dreaded tuberculosis, or TB. He suffered with TB
for more than four years and was placed in a sanatorium,
before being relocated to New Mexico for the benefit
of a drier climate. Typhoid fever, measles, chicken
pox, mumps, cancer, tuberculosis, influenza, heart
disease, kidney failure, dysentery, bone fractures,
pneumonia, and so many other illnesses for which
we have treatments and cures today terminated the
lives of our ancestors far too soon.
In
order to learn more about the medical conditions
and treatments of bygone eras, and to understand
their social impact, we have to read the available
literature that exists. I love to read about historical
periods and the conditions of the times. In "Along
Those Lines..." this week, I want to share information
about two books that shed light on two of the most
prevalent and devastating diseases of the last two
hundred years: tuberculosis and influenza.
Keep Your Distance: Tuberculosis
I met up with my friend Carol Hubbell in Asheville,
North Carolina, earlier this month at the North Carolina
Genealogical Society/Olde Buncombe County Genealogical
Society Conference. We've been exchanging e-mail
since then, and she alerted me to a book about TB.
She pointed out that those ubiquitous "No Spitting" signs
you may have seen in old photographs weren't posted
just to stem a nasty personal habit (for which spittoons
had been used). They reflect a public health concern
regarding the spread of contagious diseases, especially
TB.
TB
was nothing new in the early twentieth century.
History connoisseurs will likely be familiar with
the illness called "consumption." French author
Alexandre Dumas wrote the book, La Dame aux Camilles that
tells the story of courtesan Marguerite Gautier,
her love affair, and her eventual death from consumption.
Operatic composer Giuseppe Verdi set the story to
music in his classic opera, La Traviata, and
Greta Garbo played the role in the 1937 film, Camille. The
truth of the disease, however, is far less than romantic,
and the public was terrified of contracting the fatal
disease.
Living in the Shadow of Death: Tuberculosis and
the Social Experience of Illness in America, written
by Sheila M. Rothman, was originally published
in 1994 by Basic Books, a division of HarperCollins.
It now is available in softcover, published by
Johns Hopkins Press. I've purchased the book, and
it is apparent that Ms. Rothman has covered her
subject well, providing a detailed history from
the early 1800s to 1940. Along the way, she discusses
the medical and social dread of the disease, the
lure of the western American states for their healing
climates, and the sanatorium experience. Having
had a great-uncle who suffered from and succumbed
to the disease, I'm very interested in medical
treatment options, public health and government
concerns, and the social conditions and stigma
at the time. The book will help me understand my
great-uncle's circumstances, his life, his wife's
situation, and the effects that the illness may
have had on his parents and siblings.
More Deadly Than the Plague: Influenza
Diarist Samuel Pepys is famous for his depiction
of the bubonic plague that swept through London in
1665 and the Great Fire the following year. Many
people may think that this "Black Death" was the
worst epidemic in history, but such assumptions would
be wrong. In 1918, at the height of World War I,
a worldwide pandemic of influenza killed more than
50 million people.
One of my mother's sisters had a vivid childhood
memory of traveling by car through Salisbury, North
Carolina, and seeing scores of pine coffins stacked
on the railroad platform and sidewalks. Her father
told the family that the coffins at the railroad
station contained the bodies of soldiers shipped
home from Europe and that those on the sidewalk contained
the bodies of people who had died of influenza. That
image stuck with my aunt for more than eighty years.
A new book published in 2004 details the story of
the deadliest plague in history. Written by John
M. Barry and published by Viking Books, The Great
Influenza: The Epic Story of the 1918 Pandemic, the
book describes the climate of panic and fear that
developed as the epidemic rapidly spread and killed
thousands every day. Barry discusses the political
and social hysteria and the heroic efforts of researchers
to isolate the cause of the disease and to develop
vaccines. This powerful book will change the way
you perceive your ancestors' lives in 1918 and may
well explain why so many of them didn't survive to
be enumerated in the 1920 federal census.
Taking It All Together
We take modern medicine for granted in its ability
to address, treat, and even cure many of the diseases
that killed our forebears. Certainly, though, new
strains of influenza appear each year, and we seek
vaccinations for the flu, pneumonia, and other common
illnesses. TB, too, is far from eradicated and health
officials report increases in the numbers of new
cases each year. New strains of disease-resistant
antibiotics continue to flourish and new diseases
appear regularly. Will our own descendants study
our medical history? What impact will HIV/AIDS, mad
cow disease, Legionnaires' disease, and other contemporary
illnesses have on society and our lives?
I hope you'll consider reading these books or seeking
out other works concerning medical conditions and
treatments prevalent during your ancestors' lifetimes.
It all adds to the bigger picture you can develop
of your ancestors and their lives.
Happy Hunting!
George
George is president and a proud member of the International
Society of Family History Writers and Editors. Visit
the ISFHWE website at: www.rootsweb.com/~cgc/.
Visit George's website at http://ahaseminars.com/atl for
information about speaking engagements.
Copyright 2004, MyFamily.com. All rights reserved.
Access a printer-friendly version of this article, e-mail it to a friend, or submit your feedback.
Top
Ancestry
Quick Tip
Data
Recovery
I read Ted
Muraski's Quick Tip Thursday about his hard drive
crashing.
There
are companies that claim to be able to recover
some, most, or maybe all data lost as a result
of a hard disk crash. I haven't had a hard disk
crash, but if I did, I would investigate the company
as far as claims, price, and especially opinions
from satisfied customers.
I
entered "data recovery" and "Detroit" into
Google and pulled up about 18,600 hits! The sponsored
links column off to the right is helpful, too.
Even
if you can get much of the lost data back through
other means, it would be worth your while to check
the Internet. I know that I wouldn't want to retype
all of the genealogy data I have entered in, say,
the last year!
Good
luck! Maybe you can follow up with another Quick
Tip reporting inexpensive success!
Tom
Santa Clara, California
Thanks
to Tom for today's Quick Tip! If you have a tip
you would like to share with researchers, you can
send it to ADNeditor@ancestry.com.
Quick
Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter,
in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not
want your tip included in a publication other than
the Ancestry Daily News and Ancestry
Weekly Digest, please state so clearly in your
message.
Access a
printer-friendly version of this tip, e-mail it
to a friend, or submit your feedback.
Top |
Ancestry Daily News
