52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 23
June 3rd to June 9th, 2024
Health

“Heart disease runs in our family, diabetes runs in our family, strokes run in our family, or gastrointestinal diseases run in our family.” Have you ever heard those statements from any of your older family members? Most families have some common thread of health issues. Older family members may just want to caution us about those maladies and sometimes want to urge us to eat better, exercise more, or avoid certain activities. Of course, as genealogists we can look at the death certificates attached to the lives of our family members to be sure that those statements are true and to report those issues to our family doctors regarding health history.
I’ve been researching my family tree for at least 15 to 20 years and I’m certain that I have pinpointed the most common diseases that are common in my family. Most DNA companies have an option to test for health testing. We should be grateful for that knowledge if we heed it. But did you ever come across an ancestor’s death certificate that had a cause of death that we are not familiar with or that may have been shocking?
Usually, those causes were not openly discussed by our recent ancestors, either because a story was passed down to them they deemed shameful, it was a criminal death, or it involved embarrassing health issues.
I once came across one such collateral or relative ancestor and decided to research the health issue from which they suffered and died. Let me preface with the definitions of direct ancestors and collateral ancestors.
Direct ancestors, also known as lineal ancestors, are people you are descended from through a parent-child relationship. This includes your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on. Collateral ancestors, also known as collateral relatives, are people who share a common ancestor with you but are not in a direct line. This includes your aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, nieces, nephews, and in-laws. By researching and adding your collateral ancestors or relatives we often can make more discoveries and add to the family stories of our direct ancestors. Personally, I usually find those collateral ancestors’ lives far more interesting than many of our direct ancestors! This story, however, is sad.

This blog post is about my paternal grandaunt, my grandmother’s sister. Her name was Lucy, or at times, her name was recorded as Lulu. Lucy C. McGhee was born on 4 March 1872
in north central Pennsylvania to Isaac Ross McGhee and Mary Jane Leinbach McGhee. As a child, she lived in tiny Allison Township, Clinton County, Pennsylvania. She was the eldest daughter and child of the McGhee family having five years between her sister, Elizabeth’s birth, or Lizzie as she was commonly known, and a twenty-year span between her and the birth of my grandmother, Ruth Naomi. There was another child, a boy born sometime between the three sisters according to family lore, but I have not found proof of such a child as yet. No documents have become known regarding this male child. I continue to search, however.

Young Lucy was an only child for almost five years, Mary Jane was a young mother, and her husband, Isaac Ross McGhee was a U.S. Civil War Union veteran and a saddler by trade. Most likely by 1882, and definitely by 1883, according to the U.S. City Directories for Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the small family resided in a more suburban geographical setting. One can imagine that Lucy had a common upbringing there by attending school and learning a trade. In the 1900 U. S. Federal Census Lucy’s occupation was recorded as “seamstress”, and her age was 28 years, her sister Lizzie was already residing outside of the nuclear family home as she was married in 1895, my grandmother Ruth was “at school,” and her mother, Mary Jane did not have an occupation at that time. Her father, Isaac Ross McGhee, died at the age of 49 in 1899. It seemed that Lucy, or Lulu, was the sole breadwinner for the family. There was a lot of change in the family.
The small family relocated several times in the next few years and Mary Jane during those years, took in boarders to assist with the monthly bills. However, by 1901 Lucy had met her soon-to-be husband, Alfred J. Schultz, an Altoona, Pennsylvania resident and the son of German immigrants, then married him on 25 December 1901 at 5:30 pm in a Christmas Day ceremony that was conducted at her mother’s home in South Williamsport.

During the next few years, it appears that Lucy and Albert, or A.J. as he was commonly known, were active in local Altoona civic and political organizations. She was the “Noble Grand” of the Doreen Rebekah Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a member of Circle 16 of the Women of the Grand Army, and entertained local organizations as a musician playing the piano for certain events. On 19 August 1914, she played the piano for a surprise birthday party for one of her local lodge friends also attended by her husband. It was reported in the Altoona Tribune that A.J. was elected to act as a delegate for the local Democratic Party.
Lucy and A.J. did not have any children which I could find in my research.


But, on 3 December 1915, Lucy died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at St. Francis Hospital, a distance of about 80 to 90 miles west of Altoona depending on the mode of transportation, most likely the railroad. That had to be a difficult journey. According to her death certificate, she was 43 years old, and in residence at the hospital for about one week when she succumbed to “general paralysis of the insane.” WHAT? What does that cause of death mean? I had to research more about this malady. To me, following Lucy’s timeline as I did, she didn’t seem insane. She led a full social life as evidenced by the civic groups she belonged to and her musical ability.
Here is what I found as a definition for “general paralysis of the insane” also known as “general paresis of the insane.”
General paresis, also known as general paralysis of the insane (GPI), paralytic dementia, or syphilitic paresis is a severe neuropsychiatric disorder, classified as an organic mental disorder. It is caused by late-stage syphilis and chronic meningoencephalitis as well as the cerebral atrophy that is associated with this late stage of the disease when left untreated. GPI differs from mere paresis, as mere paresis can result from multiple other causes and usually does not affect cognitive function. Degenerative changes caused by GPI are associated primarily with the frontal and temporal lobar cortex. The disease affects approximately 7% of individuals infected with syphilis and is far more common today in developing countries where fewer options for timely treatment are available. It is more common among men.
GPI was originally considered a type of madness due to a dissolute character when first identified in the early 19th century. The condition's connection with syphilis was discovered in the late 1880s. Progressively, with the discovery of organic arsenicals such as Salvarsan and Neosalvarsan (1910s), the development of pyrotherapy (1920s), and the widespread availability and use of penicillin in the treatment of syphilis (1940s), the condition was rendered avoidable and curable. Prior to this, GPI was inevitably fatal, and it accounted for as much as 25% of the primary diagnoses for residents in public psychiatric hospitals.
Symptoms of the disease first appear from 10 to 30 years after infection. Incipient GPI is usually manifested by neurasthenic difficulties, such as fatigue, headaches, insomnia, dizziness, etc. As the disease progresses, mental deterioration and personality changes occur. Typical symptoms include loss of social inhibitions, asocial behavior, gradual impairment of judgment, concentration, and short-term memory, euphoria, mania, depression, or apathy. Subtle shivering, minor defects in speech, and Argyll Robertson pupil may become noticeable.
Delusions, common as the illness progresses, tend to be poorly systematized and absurd. They can be grandiose, melancholic, or paranoid. These delusions include ideas of great wealth, immortality, thousands of lovers, unfathomable power, apocalypsis, nihilism, self-guilt, self-blame, or bizarre hypochondriacal complaints. Later, the patient experiences dysarthria, intention tremors, hyperreflexia, myoclonic jerks, confusion, seizures, and severe muscular deterioration. Eventually, the paretic dies bedridden, cathartic, and completely disoriented, frequently in a state of status epilepticus. Unfortunately, penicillin, a common cure for syphilis, was not in practical use until after WW II.
What an awful way to die! I had so many questions! Thinking back to when I was a young woman, I remember my aunt talking briefly about my Grandaunts Lucy and Lizzie. Here were her exact words when I asked about her, “Oh, Aunt Lu…” and that was the end of the conversation.
I have no idea how Lucy contracted this terrible disease, or how long she suffered. Did she contract it from her husband, from a previous lifestyle that made her susceptible to it, or was she raped? Unfortunately, I’ll never know. It was 1915, sadly before the death of her mother in 1923.

Lucy was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Altoona, Pennsylvania, her tombstone reads, “LUCY C. WIFE OF A. J. SCHULTZ 1872- 1915.” A. J. died in 1934 having never remarried. I have not been able to find his tombstone in that cemetery although his death certificate states that he is buried there.
And so, I learned about a disease that caused the death of a great number of people, that I knew nothing about, and the sad end to my grandaunt’s life.
This revelation about a health issue in my family goes to prove that when you delve into your family history, you never know what you will find. One needs to be prepared for the good along with the bad.
Thanks cousin,
Fascinating. When reading the nicknames and this posting, I learned a lot and filled in quite a few pieces of data in my tree! 😊
Allen Henninger