When thinking of an historic event, you may think of the Great Depression, World Wars, Pearl Harbor, Fall of the Berlin Wall or a more recent event, Covid-19.

When I think of historic events, I lean more towards major events in people’s lives. Although the historic events mentioned above can impact many lives, events, either minor or major, can influence someone’s path in life.

So, as you can imagine, there can be many such events in everyone’s life, meaning it would make it difficult to narrow it down to just one.

I’m not going to delve through all my ancestors to try and come up with something but take an easier path and go with an event in my own life. See there, I just altered my path!

There have been many events that have taken place and adjusted my path, impacting not only my life but also those of my own family. There are two major events that have happened in my life that have led me down the path to genealogy.

The first is my cousin Donna’s passing in October 2018, and the second is my dad’s open-heart surgery in November 2019. I won’t go into the specifics of these two occasions; needless to say, they both spoke to me in different ways but in some way became one.

My cousin, Donna, passed from cancer. When she found out what type of cancer she had, she thought it may have been genetic. She was insistent that her family all take tests to find out if they may have the cancer markers for what she herself had. If anyone knows Donna, they will know how pushy she could be when she wanted something, so I’m sure her family did take those tests.

Now, onto my dad, Grant. I know more about this story as I was part of pretty much every event leading up to and after his surgery.

A genetic medical condition, aortic stenosis, resulting in my dad’s open-heart surgery was one of the biggest eye-openers for our family and myself especially. I remember my mom & dad telling me about it and my first question was how we did not know this before. Well, as it turns out, Dad did know about it and he had mentioned it to his doctor quite a while ago. As a result, it was monitored if not regularly but enough to know that when my dad started feeling out of sorts, running out of breath on one of his many walks, he decided to check in with his doctor. This resulted in going to see a heart surgeon who concluded that yes, it was time for the surgery Dad was told he would need eventually. I attended appointments with my parents so I could be another set of ears for understanding everything and assist wherever I can.

Here’s where I started asking Dad questions – how did he know he had this heart condition. Because he was overwhelmed with all that was going on, the discussion didn’t last long. So, I started digging into family history. I wasn’t sure how to do this but started where one would think to start, by doing genealogy.

I started with Ancestry.com, and as what usually happens with most who start, became overwhelmed with all the information coming at me from many sources and not really understanding what to do with it.

It took a lot of research, a quick little course or two, joining a local genealogy society and a lot of questions. The outcome, I was pointed in the right direction and found the information I needed.

It turns out, my dad’s father, Stanley Leonard Briggs, had the same heart condition as indicated in his death certificate.

Registration of Death ¹ Stanley Leonard Briggs – ca 1962 ²

My grandfather, Stanley, had surgery to replace the aortic valve, however, four days later, he had a heart attack and passed. He was very young, and it was devastating as it was thought the surgery would have helped with the issue of aortic stenosis by replacing the aortic stem valve.

Stanley’s father, Thomas Albert Briggs, did have a heart condition and high blood pressure as shown on the Registration of Death.

Thomas Albert Briggs, ca 1945 ³ Registration of Death ⁴

Thomas’ father, Thomas Lasher Briggs, passed away at 81 years of age. At this time, it is unknown how he passed or of what. Some would naturally assume that it was of a heart attack, especially given his age. I do not have a copy of the death certificate – one item on my list to obtain.

Thomas Lasher Briggs ⁵

As a result of finding out what Dad had was a genetic condition, my two sons and I were tested, and yes, we all have the same condition. So, we need to get checked periodically so when the time comes, we will need the same surgery my dad and grandfather had.

I’ve also found out that some other family members on my dad’s side have the same condition. They knew about it before I did my research. Since having spoken with my uncle, he was the one that passed on this information. To think we could have known before if only we had thought to speak about it!

An historic event for me is going through a major event in life that causes one to take precautions for what may happen in the future. My sons and I are trying to take better care of ourselves, getting exercise and eating better. We know this will not stop the condition from developing, but it will make us more aware if we are having any effects wherein it would cause the surgery to be needed.

Let’s just say I was very pleased with myself for being able to find out this information. If I hadn’t gotten the genealogy research bug, it may have never been known that it was a genetic issue that our family needed to be made aware of.

Oh, and I love doing this type of research – it is immensely rewarding finding out things about your family’s ancestors that brings light to who we are today.

I’d say that’s an historic event – how about you?

1. BC Museum Archives, Registration #1969-09-007215, Vital Stat Image 004479284_02037.jpg ↩︎
2. Personal photo ↩︎
3. Personal photo ↩︎
4. BC Museum Archives, Registration # 1949-09-002395, Vital Stat Image 004438070_00408.jpg ↩︎
5. New Westminster Archives, Item IFP0036, ID 31098, ca 1910 – 1919 ↩︎