Family History

Top U.S. health officials are asking families to use their Thanksgiving gatherings to discuss and record the medical histories of their parents, grandparents and other kin. Health researchers have known for years that family medical history is a strong indicator for many chronic diseases, including diabetes, stroke, obesity, cancer and heart disease. "In fact, family history is the most consistent risk factor for almost all human diseases across [one's] life span," said Muin Khoury, the director of the Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

MY SISTER Ann tackled a brave task a few weeks ago. She dug into the deepest depths of the old Guilford Avenue cellar, the part that sits under the front porch, where it's so damp you could grow mushrooms. She tackled trunks and boxes untouched for decades, sifting through carefully preserved mementos I wouldn't have the emotional courage to face. Earlier in the summer, BGE notified my father that their records indicated the gas supply line to our house was installed in 1914, the year the house was built.

A series of arguments prompted by a stolen bicycle apparently led to an attempted murder-suicide Wednesday night that left two Pasadena men hospitalized yesterday, Anne Arundel County police and a victim's relatives said. Darien Lateef Hudson, 25, was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where police said Wednesday he was brain-dead. Anne Arundel County police said Hudson shot himself once in the head after fleeing the scene of a shooting just outside Freetown Village. Earlier Wednesday evening, police found Joseph Francis Queen, 27, with a gunshot wound to the upper body.

John B. Reid, a retired printing firm proofreader and decorated World War II veteran, died of cancer April 3 at his Timonium home. He was 86. Born in New York City and raised in East Orange, N.J., he left home at 18 to sail in the merchant marine. Family members said he sailed aboard the SS Zarembo, crossed the Atlantic, called at the west coast of Africa and sailed up the Congo River. In 1941 he enlisted in the Army and attended Officer Candidate School. Trained in parachute jumping, he made 13 jumps.

Murrow family's Harford history While this story [about Bill Murrow, Nov 16] was wonderful, I'm afraid some of the reported facts are incorrect. I am Bill Murrow's sister, and would like to correct the author who stated that our mother's family was Quaker and moved from Philadelphia to Troyer Road in the Black Horse area of White Hall. Actually, it was our grandfather Murrow who was Quaker, but our Quaker relatives are buried in North Carolina, not in the Quaker cemetery in Fallston. Our mother's family did move to Harford County (Fallston)

Do sports creams like Icy Hot do anything other than numb the area you apply them to? Is there any harm in using these creams and then continuing to work out? Over-the-counter topical creams and patches like Ben-Gay and Icy Hot are designed to warm the muscle or joint and temporarily relieve pain. If you are looking for a more substantial result, you won't find it here. Does your pain go beyond muscle soreness or arthritis? If the answer is yes, you need a doctor, not a sports cream. If you are in enough pain that you can't work out without a cream, it's possible that you could inflict further damage by lathering up and then hitting the gym. As Charlie McMillin of the Greenspring Lifestyle Center in Lutherville says, "If the inflammation is simply a symptom, all of the sports cream in the world isn't going to help."

Many years ago, when Rick Kittles' white classmates would compare their families' ethnic origins, they all talked about countries such as Ireland, Italy or Germany. When they asked him about his roots, Kittles recalled, "I would say, `Africa.' Other times, I would make stuff up and say, `I'm a Mandingo.' That bothered me, not knowing more about where in Africa." Like most African-American descendants of slaves, he had no better answers because slavery worked to strip its victims of their heritage, even their names.

Her maiden name was Herrmann, so it caught Patty Smith's eye when an ad for an Emmitsburg antiques auction listed an earthenware jug with "P. Herrmann, 1 Gal." stamped into it. "My great-great-great-grandfather's name was Peter Herrmann," Smith said to her husband, Don. They drove to the sale, looked at each other in alarm as the bidding reached $90, but bought the jug and put it on a shelf in their living room. That was in 1995. By now, the Smiths, of Finksburg, are hunter-collectors, owning several dozen jugs, crocks, milk pans, cake and butter crocks and other pre-plastic household containers - all bearing the incised P. Herrmann seal.

THIS IS ABOUT the hunger of memory, the human desire to know how families start out in faraway villages no longer located on maps and wind up in America, in cities such as Baltimore. It's about a woman named Lynn Weisberg, who seems to have contacts everywhere on the planet, including a place called Libau, Russia. And it's about a woman named Zipora Struhl, whose journey started so many others more than a century ago. Zipora was 55 years old on that December day in 1897 when she arrived in America from Libau.

Watching family history spring to life A Memorable Place By Kathy Mooney When I was growing up in a small town in Wisconsin, my uncle lived on the family homestead. The farmhouse had been the home of my great grandparents, Irish immigrants who arrived in Wisconsin shortly after it became a state in 1848. Three generations of the family were born there. During the Depression, the family had to sell the farm, but my uncle remained there as a tenant. My family spent many Sunday afternoons at the house, and it was the scene of extended family gatherings.