Causes of Death in the Ducklow Family
Focus on George and Emma Ducklow Descendants
[Published March 23, 2009]

Protecting our health and living a long life is a goal most of us share. One aspect of our health is our genetics. Knowing our common family genes, or more specifically, knowing what diseases our greater family seems more susceptible to can provide insight to the steps we should take to keep ourselves well.

One interesting element of building the Ducklow family tree has been seeing patterns in the cause of death of ancestors, near and distant cousins, and personal family members. The cause of death is often cited when reviewing obituaries, death certificates or hearing oral histories. It is only natural to wonder if your own health fate is rooted in history of those who have passed already. To that end, an examination the cause of death for descendants of George and Emma Ducklow branch was performed and is presented here.

George and Emma Ducklow’s family has grown considerably since Emma delivered her first child, Nellie, in October of 1876. If George and Emma were alive today they would count 361 descendants! The vast majority of theses are living: 328 of 361 are alive today or about 91%. In the 133 years since Nellie’s birth there have been only 33 deaths of blood descendants.

Because so few of George and Emma’s descendants have passed-on, the number of deaths to consider as part of a patterns is quite limited. However, in broad terms, the cause of the majority of these deaths can be generalized into the following seven categories ranked by frequency [see footnotes]:

(1) Cancer
(2) Heart failure
(3) Infant morality
(4) Asthma
(5) War
(6) Stroke
(7) Accident

Like most Americans, those of us in the Ducklow family should take steps to combat cancer and heart disease. These are the two biggest cited causes of death in America. It is interesting to compare the above list against a published list of causes of death across America. One list cites the following causes and percentages [see footnote]:

(1) 29% Heart disease
(2) 23% Cancer
(3) 7% Stroke
(4) 5% Respiratory disease
(5) 4% Accidents
(6) 3% Diabetes
(7) 3% Flu / pneumonia
(8) 26 % all others

An important warning to by anyone in our family who enjoys smoking cigarettes: This is clearly the most deadly vice for someone with Ducklow genes to engage in. It appears that at least 75 percent those who died of cancer that descend from George and Emma Ducklow had smoked cigarettes on a regular basis. The average age of those who died of cancer who were also smokers was age 56.

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Footnote: Not all of the 33 known deaths were categorized for lack of data on the cause of death. As additional information is found this post will be updated.

Footnote: Due to the potential for abuse of more detailed information the author will not to publish more detailed family statistics tied to disease / cause of death in this blog. However, I would be happy to share the information with any Ducklow family member that contacts me.

Footnote: Only the descendants of George and Emma Ducklow’s branch were analyzed. Spouses were not included.

Footnote: Source for cause of death in America: National Vital Statistics Report, Volume 53, Number 5 (October 2004) See web site that uses CDC data: http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/causes.html

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