By Patty on Tuesday, November 14, 2000 - 06:51 pm:

Hi, I live in the Philippines where there is no typing available. I am looking for any long lost relatives who have been typed. I got EDS from my grandfather who was born to Isaac Well Spencer and Penelope Gross. They were in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Penelope was the daughter of Fredricka Helms. Isaac Wells was the son of Mary Brady. Do any of you connect with those last names? Records show the family in both New York and Connecticut.
It is important to find our type because, while we tend to think we are classical, I hemorrhaged after my hysterectomy and had 19 units of blood products. The family also has a history of intestinal and bladder diverticula.
Besides, it'd be just fun to connect with distant family!!!

By Sheena on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 07:35 am:

Patty, If you really want to investigate your family history you can get a lot of information on the internet. There any loads of sites to help. If you look at these 2, they will get you started and link you to lots of others.

www.cyndislist.com
www.familyhistory.com
www.surhelp.rootsweb.com

Good luck!

By Sheena on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 11:54 am:

Correction (this always happens when you type in URL!)

http://surhelp.rootsweb.com

By Patty on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 10:05 pm:

Thanks, Sheena. I'll do that! Do you think I might be able to find who had EDS from that???

By Sheena on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 02:18 pm:

Patty,
The simple answer is no! You can build a pattern, for example some of the family gravestones I have come across shows they all lived to their 80s, while in other families the majority of the children died in childhood. In my own case, both sides live into their 80s, and that includes those living in the 19th century.

It gets a bit tricky - I have not even asked my cousins if they have HMS symptoms. If they have, they will probably find out the same way I did. If they haven't, I don't want to worry them.

I can see it must be frustrating for you when you have no relatives to talk to. Best of luck in tracing them. I hope you find some really nice people.

By Patty on Monday, November 20, 2000 - 10:47 pm:

Thanks, Sheena.
I have asked some of my cousins and they don't get back to me. They are all having grandkids coming and if I were them I would want to know for the sake of the little ones.
I do have one other possible source I have thought of trying to trace and that is PT Barnum's circus. He was a great friend of the family and I think that must say something!
Thanks for the thought and encouragement.