Greetings oh loyal reader(s) and my apologies for my long absence – I have been otherwise occupied with major surgery and recuperating therefrom.  With body and brain gradually getting back to normal (yes, for some reason, the brain decided it wanted a rest too and has only recently been kickstarted with some revision of Latin pronominal declensions), I decided it was time to get back to the family history – a decision made at 4am this morning when the brain decided it wanted to compose this blog rather than let the poor old body sleep.

My musings at this early hour were initially on the subject of syphilis.  Some time ago, my new contact Sam recognised in the cause of death –  (ie “paralysis of the insane”) –  of our mutual relative James Hooker(1821-1890) a description of the tertiary stage of syphilis.  This led us to speculation on his father’s death (the elusive Robert Hooker) and also on the state of  health of  wives and children.  Syphilis is a highly contagious sexually transmitted disease and in those days there was no effective treatment for it.

I have since learned a bit more about this disease.  In the mid 1800s about 1 in 10 people in England were infected by this disease and its effects varied from mild sickness, to blindness, high infant mortality through to insanity and death.  Not everyone who got it died from it, in fact it was possible to recover from it – and be re-infected.  The later development of antibiotics provided the cure for this condition.

The more I learn about our ancestors and their lives, the more I admire them – and I wonder if our descendants will look back 200 years at our lives with the same degree of admiration, vicarious pride and pity.