CBC Fall 2007 Program on Tracing Your Roots
24/06/07 10:01
New documentary series include The Nature of Things: Geologic Journey, an epic history of Canada’s rocks, mountains and minerals, and Who Do You Think You Are?, a genealogy-based series of profiles in which 13 prominent Canadians trace their family histories. Don Cherry, Shaun Majumder and Chantal Kreviazuk will be among those profiled.
Ancestry.com adding DNA test results
24/06/07 09:58
Ancestry.com adding DNA test results
The rapidly growing field of online genealogical searches is expanding to genetic testing, courtesy of a new partnership between the Internet's largest family history Web site, Ancestry.com, and Sorenson Genomics, a privately held DNA research firm.
Sorenson and Ancestry.com's Provo, Utah-based parent company, The Generations Network, will reveal details of their venture Monday.
Ancestry.com plans to launch the DNA testing product by the end of summer, offering customers the possibility of finding DNA matches in the site's 24,000 genealogical databases.
"DNA research becomes more meaningful to people searching for relatives as more people's DNA results become part of the database," said Doug Fogg, chief operating officer of Salt Lake City-based Sorenson Genomics, a division of Relative Genetics.
---
On the Net:
The Generations Network: http://www.myfamilyinc.com
Sorenson Genomics: http://www.sorensongenomics.com
The rapidly growing field of online genealogical searches is expanding to genetic testing, courtesy of a new partnership between the Internet's largest family history Web site, Ancestry.com, and Sorenson Genomics, a privately held DNA research firm.
Sorenson and Ancestry.com's Provo, Utah-based parent company, The Generations Network, will reveal details of their venture Monday.
Ancestry.com plans to launch the DNA testing product by the end of summer, offering customers the possibility of finding DNA matches in the site's 24,000 genealogical databases.
"DNA research becomes more meaningful to people searching for relatives as more people's DNA results become part of the database," said Doug Fogg, chief operating officer of Salt Lake City-based Sorenson Genomics, a division of Relative Genetics.
---
On the Net:
The Generations Network: http://www.myfamilyinc.com
Sorenson Genomics: http://www.sorensongenomics.com
Secret underlies Hatfield-McCoy Feud
24/06/07 09:55
Secret underlies Hatfield-McCoy feud
Disease may have fuelled McCoy outbursts
The most infamous feud in American folklore, the long-running battle between the Hatfields and McCoys, may be partly explained by a rare, inherited disease that can lead to hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts.
Dozens of McCoy descendants apparently have the disease, which causes high blood pressure, racing hearts, severe headaches and too much adrenaline and other “fight or flight” stress hormones.
No one blames the whole feud on this, but doctors say it could help explain some of the clan’s notorious behaviour.
“This condition can certainly make anybody short-tempered, and if they are prone because of their personality, it can add fuel to the fire,” said Dr. Revi Mathew, a Vanderbilt University endocrinologist treating one of the family members.
The Hatfields and McCoys have a storied and deadly history dating to Civil War times. Their generations of fighting over land, timber rights and even a pig are the subject of dozens of books, songs and countless jokes. Unfortunately for Appalachia, the feud is one of its greatest sources of fame.
Several genetic experts have known about the disease plaguing some of the McCoys for decades, but kept it secret. The Associated Press learned of it after several family members revealed their history to Vanderbilt doctors, who are trying to find more McCoy relatives to warn them of the risk.
One doctor who had researched the family for decades called them the “McC kindred” in a 1998 medical journal article tracing the disease through four generations.
“He said something about us never being able to get insurance” if the full family name was used, said Rita Reynolds, a Bristol, Tenn., woman with the disease. She says she is a McCoy descendant and has documents from the doctor showing his work on her family.
She is speaking up now so distant relatives might realize their risk and get help before the condition proves fatal, as it did to many of her ancestors.
Back then, “we didn’t even know this existed,” she said. “They just up and died.”
Von Hippel-Lindau disease, which afflicts many family members, can cause tumours in the eyes, ears, pancreas, kidney, brain and spine. Roughly three-fourths of the affected McCoys have pheochromocytomas — tumours of the adrenal gland.
The small, bubbly-looking orange adrenal gland sits atop each kidney and makes adrenaline and substances called catecholamines. Too much can cause high blood pressure, pounding headaches, heart palpitations, facial flushing, nausea and vomiting. There is no cure for the disease, but removing the tumours before they turn cancerous can improve survival.
Affected family members have long been known to be combative, even with their kin. Reynolds recalled her grandfather, “Smallwood” McCoy.
“When he would come to visit, everyone would run and hide. They acted like they were scared to death of him. He had a really bad temper,” she said.
Her adopted daughter, another McCoy descendant, 11-year-old Winnter Reynolds, just had an adrenal tumour removed at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. Teachers thought the girl had ADHD — attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Now, Winnter says, “my parents are thinking it may be the tumour” that caused the behaviour. “I’ve been feeling great since they took it out.”
Her adoptive father, James Reynolds, said of the McCoys: “It don’t take much to set them off. They’ve got a pretty good temper.
“Before the surgery, Winnter, when we would discipline her, she’d squeeze her fists together and get real angry and start hollering back at us, screaming and crying,” he said.
As for the older McCoys, “they just started dropping dead of the tumours,” he said. “They didn’t know what it was. A name wasn’t really put on the disease until 1968. That’s when one of my brothers-in-law had to have surgery, to have some tumours removed in his brain. They started to notice tumours occurring in each of the family members.”
Dr. Nuzhet Atuk at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and geneticists at the University of Pennsylvania studied the family for more than 30 years, Rita Reynolds said.
“They went back on the genealogy and all of that stuff,” she said. “They called it madness disease. They said that it had to be coming from the VHL. Our family would just go off, even on the doctors.”
Now 85 and retired, Atuk said he could not talk about his work because of medical confidentiality.
Disease may have fuelled McCoy outbursts
The most infamous feud in American folklore, the long-running battle between the Hatfields and McCoys, may be partly explained by a rare, inherited disease that can lead to hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts.
Dozens of McCoy descendants apparently have the disease, which causes high blood pressure, racing hearts, severe headaches and too much adrenaline and other “fight or flight” stress hormones.
No one blames the whole feud on this, but doctors say it could help explain some of the clan’s notorious behaviour.
“This condition can certainly make anybody short-tempered, and if they are prone because of their personality, it can add fuel to the fire,” said Dr. Revi Mathew, a Vanderbilt University endocrinologist treating one of the family members.
The Hatfields and McCoys have a storied and deadly history dating to Civil War times. Their generations of fighting over land, timber rights and even a pig are the subject of dozens of books, songs and countless jokes. Unfortunately for Appalachia, the feud is one of its greatest sources of fame.
Several genetic experts have known about the disease plaguing some of the McCoys for decades, but kept it secret. The Associated Press learned of it after several family members revealed their history to Vanderbilt doctors, who are trying to find more McCoy relatives to warn them of the risk.
One doctor who had researched the family for decades called them the “McC kindred” in a 1998 medical journal article tracing the disease through four generations.
“He said something about us never being able to get insurance” if the full family name was used, said Rita Reynolds, a Bristol, Tenn., woman with the disease. She says she is a McCoy descendant and has documents from the doctor showing his work on her family.
She is speaking up now so distant relatives might realize their risk and get help before the condition proves fatal, as it did to many of her ancestors.
Back then, “we didn’t even know this existed,” she said. “They just up and died.”
Von Hippel-Lindau disease, which afflicts many family members, can cause tumours in the eyes, ears, pancreas, kidney, brain and spine. Roughly three-fourths of the affected McCoys have pheochromocytomas — tumours of the adrenal gland.
The small, bubbly-looking orange adrenal gland sits atop each kidney and makes adrenaline and substances called catecholamines. Too much can cause high blood pressure, pounding headaches, heart palpitations, facial flushing, nausea and vomiting. There is no cure for the disease, but removing the tumours before they turn cancerous can improve survival.
Affected family members have long been known to be combative, even with their kin. Reynolds recalled her grandfather, “Smallwood” McCoy.
“When he would come to visit, everyone would run and hide. They acted like they were scared to death of him. He had a really bad temper,” she said.
Her adopted daughter, another McCoy descendant, 11-year-old Winnter Reynolds, just had an adrenal tumour removed at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. Teachers thought the girl had ADHD — attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Now, Winnter says, “my parents are thinking it may be the tumour” that caused the behaviour. “I’ve been feeling great since they took it out.”
Her adoptive father, James Reynolds, said of the McCoys: “It don’t take much to set them off. They’ve got a pretty good temper.
“Before the surgery, Winnter, when we would discipline her, she’d squeeze her fists together and get real angry and start hollering back at us, screaming and crying,” he said.
As for the older McCoys, “they just started dropping dead of the tumours,” he said. “They didn’t know what it was. A name wasn’t really put on the disease until 1968. That’s when one of my brothers-in-law had to have surgery, to have some tumours removed in his brain. They started to notice tumours occurring in each of the family members.”
Dr. Nuzhet Atuk at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and geneticists at the University of Pennsylvania studied the family for more than 30 years, Rita Reynolds said.
“They went back on the genealogy and all of that stuff,” she said. “They called it madness disease. They said that it had to be coming from the VHL. Our family would just go off, even on the doctors.”
Now 85 and retired, Atuk said he could not talk about his work because of medical confidentiality.