When my mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in the summer of 1993, one of the first things she wanted to know was if it was genetic. She was worried that I might develop it too. The neuroligist did his best to reassure her that he didn't think it was, but he didn't really know. This was par for the course in my mother's experience with doctors. Before her 1993 diagnosis, my mom had spent the better part of two decades trying to find out what was wrong with her (chronic pain, weakness, fatigue, vision problems, more pain). Frustrated with her doctors in Knoxville who after years of surgeries and treatments finally told her she should consider seeing a psychiatrist because her pain was probably in her head, she and my father spent the summer of 1985 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. After six weeks of more tests and procedures they sent her home with a diagnosis of chronic myalgia. They recommended that she visit a pain clinic and gave her a prescription for some heavy duty pain killers that did nothing to help manage the pain but were extremely addictive and took her several months to detox from. It was a long road for her. So, why share all of this today? Because yesterday I found the medical records of my ggg-grandfather, John David Williams at ancestry.com. His listed disabilities are uncannily similar to my mother's disabilities - defective vision, lumbar myalgia(1), and neurasthemia(2). My first thought when I googled his symptoms was "Oh my God, he had MS too!" And then I called Joel to share what I'd found.
A bit of background - John D. Williams was born in 1843. He enlisted in the Union Army on April 24th, 1862 in Kentucky and served with Company A of the 6th Tennessee Infantry through the duration of the Civil War. He mustered out of the service in Nashville on April 27th, 1865. Historical accounts indicate that the 6th Tennessee Infantry "moved on foot and otherwise, near ten thousand miles" during their three years of service. He returned to Knoxville and married Catherine E. Coker on September 18, 1866. By 1910 they were living in Fountain City and were collecting a war pension of $12 per month. In July 1910, John D. Williams was admitted to the Mountain Branch Home (3) for Disabled Soldiers in Johnson City, Tennessee and lived there until January 1911. I'm not sure of the exact date of his death, but he was interred in the Knoxville National Cemetery (Section A, Site 3494) on September 11, 1912. He was 69 years old. Catherine died in 1919 and was buried in the Coker family plot in Knoxville's Old Gray Cemetery. 
I had no idea what I would find when I decided to continue my mother's family tree research. I had hoped to fill in some missing names and dates and write down the many stories that my grandmother told me over the years, but yesterday's discovery was unexpected. I'm still trying to put into words what it means that my my mother's gg-grandfather may have had MS (or at the very least suffered from a list of disabilities very similar in nature to my mother's disabilities).It's validating - I think because it makes her illness seem less random. It's also one of those "ah-ha" moments that makes this all worth doing.
A link to information about his son, also named John Williams.
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(1) myalgia: means "muscle pain" and is a symptom of many diseases and disorders, including MS.
(2) neurasthenia: a condition explained as being a result of exhaustion of the central nervous system's energy reserves including fatigue, dyspepsia, and indications of intra-cranial pressure and and spinal irritation.
(3)For more info about Mountain Branch: http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/veterans_affairs/Mountain_Branch.html
(3)For more info about Mountain Branch: http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/veterans_affairs/Mountain_Branch.html
That's fascinating. I'd like to know more about the Coker family too. I used to live two blocks away from Coker Street. If I remember right, there was a Coker Springs somewhere right around there on Tazewell Pike (as that part of Broadway was called at that time).
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