Edward D Costello wrte: >Mr/Mrs X had 10 kids; i.e. #1-#10. Descendents of >the 10th kid, (who was suicidal,) over the next 3 >generations, produced ~9 instances of clinical >depression, deep depression, suicides & other >sizable psychiatric problems including "state >hospital" confinements. Descendents of kids #1-#9, >who are knowledgable people, report zero instances >of occurances of the magnitude that occured with >kid #10. Question: is this feasible? ....... I work in the mental health field at one of local hospitals, either on the hospital unit itself or in the emergency room, doing the ER pyschiatric intake. Part of the interview covers social and personal history, including any family history of psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. We're more or less a small town area, and over a period of years, I've gotten to know a lot about some of local families. I can cautiously say yes, I've seen many conditions we work with regarding our patients also showing up in the family line. Something like what you're describing, one child out of ten founding a generational line of serious conditions seems very unlikely, and not something I've seen with any of our patients in their own family line. The genetic component of mental illness is well documented, especially with identical twin studies. With twins, it can be seen that, although the concordance rate for mental illness is high, it's not necessarily certain that if one twin has a psychatric condition, the other will also have it. Take a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concordance_(genetics) The actual genetic picture can be more complicated. Bringing this more specifically to Donegal genealogy, we have a picture of Hannah McFeely, born in Carrowmenagh Donegal, in 1869. She has an astonishingly strong physical resemblance to one of my sisters, yet, this is going back three generations. I contributed the picture to the Moville Inishowen web site. You can see it here, at the bottom of the page: http://www.movilleinishowen.com/history/genealogy/Carrowmenagh_Evictions.htm Our daughter, now age 11, has gone through some fast growth phases recently and changed a great deal. We have a copy of John A. McLaughlin's book, Carrowmenagh: History of a Donegal Village and Townland, and I've scanned the book pretty carefully, looking for scraps of our family history. It suddenly hit me, there is now a strong physical resemblance, facially, between our daughter and a picture of Charlie McFeely in a 1930 National school portrait. He looks to be close to the same age as our daughter in the photo. I've shown the picture to a number of other people and they can see it too. The resemblance may be fleeting, apparently my father looked like this also at about the same age, but he does not look like Charlie McFeely as an adult (there are pictures of Charlie as a grown adult in the book). So yes, the actual genetic picture in a family line can be very complex, with family traits appearing and reappearing down the line. Also, yet one more reason why we search. It's more than learning about who we are and where we came from, it's learning about why we are the way we are. <><><><><><><><><><> <><><><><><><><> Dan McFeeley "Meon an phobail a thogail trid an chultur" (The people's spirit is raised through culture)

Hi Dan I had a look at the 1881 Carrowmenagh evictions and saw a Hugh McGonigle there. There is probably no recent connection,but my gr.gr.grandfather Hugh McGonigal said he was born in Derry in various documents that I have found in Glasgow Scotland,and Kew military records..which said Londonderry by the way. He went to Scotland with his wife Sarah Coyle about 1835-37...he was a tailor by trade and born about 1814. Would there have been an earlier exodus of McGonigles from Inishowen to Derry ? Thanks Frank McGonigal Ont.Canada. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dan McFeeley" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2008 10:23 AM Subject: Re: [DONEGALEIRE] ??? > Edward D Costello wrte: > >>Mr/Mrs X had 10 kids; i.e. #1-#10. Descendents of >>the 10th kid, (who was suicidal,) over the next 3 >>generations, produced ~9 instances of clinical >>depression, deep depression, suicides & other >>sizable psychiatric problems including "state >>hospital" confinements. Descendents of kids #1-#9, >>who are knowledgable people, report zero instances >>of occurances of the magnitude that occured with >>kid #10. Question: is this feasible? ....... > > I work in the mental health field at one of local hospitals, > either on the hospital unit itself or in the emergency > room, doing the ER pyschiatric intake. Part of the > interview covers social and personal history, including > any family history of psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. > > We're more or less a small town area, and over a period > of years, I've gotten to know a lot about some of local > families. I can cautiously say yes, I've seen many > conditions we work with regarding our patients also showing > up in the family line. Something like what you're describing, > one child out of ten founding a generational line of serious > conditions seems very unlikely, and not something I've seen > with any of our patients in their own family line. > > The genetic component of mental illness is well documented, > especially with identical twin studies. With twins, it can > be seen that, although the concordance rate for mental > illness is high, it's not necessarily certain that if one > twin has a psychatric condition, the other will also have it. > > Take a look here: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concordance_(genetics) > > The actual genetic picture can be more complicated. > Bringing this more specifically to Donegal genealogy, > we have a picture of Hannah McFeely, born in Carrowmenagh > Donegal, in 1869. She has an astonishingly strong > physical resemblance to one of my sisters, yet, this > is going back three generations. > > I contributed the picture to the Moville Inishowen web > site. You can see it here, at the bottom of the page: > > http://www.movilleinishowen.com/history/genealogy/Carrowmenagh_Evictions.htm > > Our daughter, now age 11, has gone through some fast growth > phases recently and changed a great deal. We have a copy of > John A. McLaughlin's book, Carrowmenagh: History of a Donegal > Village and Townland, and I've scanned the book pretty carefully, > looking for scraps of our family history. > > It suddenly hit me, there is now a strong physical resemblance, > facially, between our daughter and a picture of Charlie McFeely > in a 1930 National school portrait. He looks to be close to > the same age as our daughter in the photo. I've shown the > picture to a number of other people and they can see it too. > >