sue hall mills wrote:
I am interested in medical information on the Camerons. As there is such an enormous
amount of cancer in my family, I have been tracing my family history and as far as I can
go back is to Sarah Ellen Cameron, daughter of John Cameron, born 1804 in Tennessee, son
of William Cameron, Jr, son of William ? who came from Scotland and settled near Cape Fear
River, NC. Sarah Ellen is the first one that I know of that died from cancer.
Genealogy is a precious resource to the identification of inherited
diseases.
I am CERTAIN that owning the surname CAMERON is NOT an indicator of
inherited cancer. Our genes are sourced from a mix of thousands of
ancestral "surnames" and it is no more than a social tradition that
makes us give prominence to our paternal surnames.
If you consider say my ggg grandfather JOHN CAMERON, he has bequeathed
to me just six percent of my genes, the remaining 94% coming from the
other fifteen ggg grandparents who were not CAMERONs.
And I have read (don't ask me questions!) that the maternal ancestors
are more influential than the male ancestors, in the determination of
descendants' characteristics. You may have heard the strange words
"UMBILICAL GENE"
Our physicians sometimes ask.. "was there any cancer/heart disease/etc
in your family?" and they seem most interested in our siblings and
parents, full stop. I have prepared a pedigree chart with siblings, and
against each name as far as possible I have marked in red ink:
AGE AT DEATH
CAUSE OF DEATH
And my physician has a copy of that, on my personal Patient File.
Genealogy has always been a paramount tool in the successful breeding
and health management of horses and dogs. It's time we caught up with
the animals!
Cheerio................
ALISTAIR (Alec) CAMERON