Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Cancer in the Minter Family

The Minter line from which I descend is oft-filled with cancer as a leading cause of death, or many members are touched by it. It begins, as near as I can tell with my great grandfather, Berrien Constantine Minter (1862-1943). He died of a stomach cancer. Of his nine children below:

1 Vesta Adel MINTER b: 14 NOV 1886 in Jakin, Early Cty, Georgia
2 Bertha Constance MINTER b: 7 NOV 1888 in Jakin, Early Cty, Georgia
3 John Milton MINTER b: 24 NOV 1890 in Jakin, Early Cty, Georgia
4 Hattie Maud MINTER b: 25 JUN 1892 in Jakin, Early Cty, Georgia
5 Othni Berrien MINTER b: 8 AUG 1895 in Jakin, Early Cty, Georgia
6 Eva Ruth MINTER b: 15 MAR 1898 in Early County, Georgia c: in Baptist Church, Jakin, Georgia
7 Lee Angus MINTER b: 17 DEC 1900 in Jakin, Early Cty, Georgia
8 Thomas Lauriston MINTER b: 1 JUL 1904 in Jakin, Early Cty, Georgia
9 Branson Cyril MINTER b: 19 JUL 1908 in Jakin, Early Cty, Georgia

Six of the nine children above had cancer of one form or another and Ruth died of ovarian cancer in 1984, Laurie of throat cancer in 1961, and Branson in 1994 of rectal or anal cancer. Vesta, Maud and Kitty all had breast cancer but they all died in their late 90s.

Ruth's two sons, Roy Minter Brooks (1928-1993) and James Warren Brooks (1931-) have each been stricken with cancer. Roy died after a long bout with prostate cancer in 1993, and my father, James W. Brooks had a benign brain tumor in 1997 which has disabled him to this day. In December 2007 Dad was found that he had prostate cancer. He underwent seven weeks of radiation and the tumor shrunk away to nothing. A possibility exists as of this writing that he has pancreatic cancer and now we are in the waiting period. How cruel life can be to be visited by 2 if not 3 cancers. As for myself I was found to have a rare form of Uterine Sarcoma in 2008 and have had 5 weeks of radiation and now am watched over by several amazing doctors.

Genealogy isn't only about counting the branches on the family tree, it also includes the family genetics, which sometimes don't skip a single generation.