Saturday 27 May 2017

Oh Moses! - Murder in the family - Update

I've been meaning to write this blog post for quite some time. Back in 2011 I wrote a blog about my great, great grandfather Moses Whiting. He sadly murdered his youngest son, and as a result spent the rest of his life in Broadmoor. I speculated in my previous post the Moses might have had Huntington's Disease. But my theory about my great, great grandfather having Huntington's Disease might well be wrong.

About a year and a half ago I was contacted by a member of the Binks family. William Whiting, my great grandfather (Moses Whiting's son), married Elizabeth Binks. Elizabeth Binks was my grandmother's mother. My grandmother (and subsequently my father) had HD. Perhaps it didn't come from the Whiting line after all?

So when Moses in a fit of pique murdered his young son it might well not have been due to HD. Or maybe by some cruel twist of fate both sides of the family had the disease; either because HD was a bit more common in this region, or because it was a tight-knit community and some family connection occurred at some point before the birth of Moses. We will never know the answer.




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