To be quite honest, I had the idea of this post a long time ago and then I put it off from writing it for a long time as well. Mostly for two reasons: 1) the post seemed rather morbid and 2) I wasn’t sure if I was releasing information I didn’t want out there. The more I thought of it however, I figured 1) a lot in genealogy unfortunately is morbid sometimes, and 2) the information I wanted to present was readily available to anyone with an Ancestry account, for example. Also, I was not including specific names from my family tree.
So finally, I decided to write the post because for me it was another way to look at something I have been building and working on for 17 years now. Our tree is also a way to see not only when and where people were born, when/where they married, and where/when they died; however, hopefully a family tree can be a way to see how they passed and a warning for yourself and future generations if there are medical conditions that are generational and worth noting.
So let’s see what my tree has to say! But… what exactly inspired this tree?
Pedigree of death
Some years back, I was inspired to publish this post on colorized pedigrees which used different colors to identify ancestors that were born in different places. This idea came from the Zalewski Family Genealogy blog which inspired me to explore different towns in Puerto Rico from which my family hailed from (most of my ancestors are from Puerto Rico but one of 3rd great-grandfather was from Mallorca!).
So I decided to revamp the idea a bit, I decided to use the same outline except using death certificates I traced the various illnesses and deaths in my family. The image was hard to capture in one shot so instead I decided to divide it up into two pictures. Also, there are no color associations to the types of deaths – I just realized I left the colors from the towns’ version but it doesn’t detract from their deaths.
Paternal side
On my father’s side of the family I see there are a lot of connections to heart disease with 5 of my 14 deceased ancestors suffering from a heart condition (7 including strokes). There are two ancestors that have unknown deaths because I do not have access to their death records and one ancestor that died from the Spanish Flu (my 2nd great-grandmother, Dionisia González Padilla, who lived in Lares).
The oldest death is at about 101 (I can not confirm the age since I do not have the birth/baptism record) and the youngest death was at 26 – Dionisia herself. It seems on this side many people made it to the 60-80 range in years. It is interesting though to see that if you look at a specific branch, the ages are fairly close.
Maternal side
On my mother’s side of the family there is a presence also of heart conditions (5 out of 13 since my grandmother is still alive). I also have three unknowns in my tree and various deaths not present on my dad’s side such as a car accident, a suicide, tuberculosis, and preeclampsia. The oldest death was at 94 years and the youngest at 34.
It interesting to note that my grandfather grew up removed from my 2nd great-grandparents because most died so young. This is important to note because my grandfather did not know much of his extended family while he was alive. Similarly the ages are in a close range in each branch excluding deaths that were not natural.
What does this tell me?
There’s no way to know of course what will affect me. Part of it is environment, diet, etc. – for example, I am a part of the first generation to be born and raised completely outside of Puerto Rico. Also, the life style I lead is very different of my ancestors who were mainly farmers going back hundreds of years. It is important though to take a look at the “writing on the wall” and take extra precautions as I get older. I know taking care of my heart is important, especially because my family was already aware of the recent deaths associated to heart disease.
I wouldn’t say that doing this has given a negative outlook on life, I do see that longevity does run across some of my branches and being aware of my family’s history is important in making better decisions today for tomorrow. Most of genealogy is spent looking at what our ancestors did while they were alive though I think it’s important to see how their lives ended as well.
Excellent, thank you for this post. All along I’ve been noting, in my genealogy software, causes of death for family members. The way you’ve laid it out in a pedigree tree is eye-opening. It is important to be aware of the traits we may carry as descendants.