I just discovered the following in an old issue of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter. The link to the full article that appeared in a medical magazine in the U.S. indicates just one more reason why we should have access to our censuses. Pip - Genealogy Study Helps Isolate Cause of Hearing Loss A study of the genealogy of a Michigan family has resulted in the identification of a gene that causes hearing loss in some families. The discovery, made by researchers from Michigan State University in East Lansing, involves a gene called DFNA 20. The gene is known to play an essential role in the function of the cochlea -- a tube inside the inner ear responsible for transmitting sound to the auditory nerve. The genealogy study involved an unnamed family in which members reported the onset of hearing problems as they neared the age of 30. Researchers found that the family's hearing problems dated back to the 1800s. "The grandmother in Michigan who initiated contact with MSU now has the satisfaction that we have identified the cause of the hearing loss that affects approximately half of her descendants," says Jill Elfenbein, an MSU associate professor of audiology and speech sciences. http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v73n5/40386/40386.html (see under "Methods - Subjects" for genealogy/census connection)