# Did Laura Ingall's family have a genetic disease? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2000, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748 "2000-11-18T17:15:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748/1 "2000-11-18T17:15:57Z")
Laura Ingall’s mother did have living brothers (one of them married one of her husband’s sisters, but I digress). However, her only son died in infancy, Laura’s only son died in infance, and Laura’s daughter Rose’s only son died in infancy (her only child, thus ending Laura’s direct line). Has anyone heard any theories as to what was going on? Seems too much to be coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![IBBen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85f322/32.png) [@IBBen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IBBen)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748/2 "2000-11-18T17:19:14Z")
Anybody know Doc Baker’s email address? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748/3 "2000-11-18T17:20:34Z")
I don’t THINK it was genetic…but here’s some links that may help: [http://webpages.marshall.edu/~irby1/laura/index.html](http://webpages.marshall.edu/~irby1/laura/index.html) [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/1715/lh-links.html](http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/1715/lh-links.html) [http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/1203/prairie.htm](http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/1203/prairie.htm) [http://members.tripod.com/First\_Duchess/index.htm](http://members.tripod.com/First_Duchess/index.htm) [http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/9760/](http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/9760/) [http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/4686/liw-lh/](http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/4686/liw-lh/) Hope these help! ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748/4 "2000-11-18T18:00:20Z")
Well, judging from the television show, all of the Ingalls suffered from excessive sappiness. That is not a genetic disorder, but it appears to be heritable. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748/5 "2000-11-18T18:15:26Z")
I seem to remember some kind of genetic problem where every time the ratings dropped a child would go blind. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748/6 "2000-11-18T18:22:01Z")
I seem to remember some kind of genetic problem where every time the ratings dropped a child would go blind. ---
**Author:** ![tygre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@tygre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygre)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748/7 "2000-11-18T18:30:46Z")
Actually, Mary (Laura’s sister) went blind from complications from scarlet fever. The TV show is NOTHING like the books, apart from the characters having the same names. –tygre ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748/8 "2000-11-18T18:43:51Z")
Also remember that, genetics or no, deaths in infancy were fairly common in those days, especially on the frontier, where life was harsh and medicine was even less available. A lot of diseases that we now laugh at, like chickenpox and measles, were major killers back then. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748/9 "2000-11-18T18:47:40Z")
I heard that all the Ingalls sons died from complications from circumcision. ---
**Author:** ![tsarina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@tsarina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsarina)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748/10 "2000-11-18T19:37:15Z")
IIRC, Laura’s sister Grace was the only one of Laura’s sisters who had a child of her own - it was a boy, and he died shortly after his birth. I agree that it was probably just coincidence, that a helluva lot of babies died during this time period. And we probably couldn’t test for the presence for genetic diseases, becasue Ma and Pa Ingalls have no living descendants. Makes you wonder, though, why it was only boys… ---
**Author:** ![tsarina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@tsarina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsarina)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748/11 "2000-11-18T19:39:14Z")
oh, and didn’t the girl who played Mary on the TV show go blind, just like her character? Jesus, did some dead Indian put a curse on Pa or something? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748/12 "2000-11-18T19:46:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tsarina \* > \*\*IIRC, Laura’s sister Grace was the only one of Laura’s sisters who had a child of her own - it was a boy, and he died shortly after his birth. > > I agree that it was probably just coincidence, that a helluva lot of babies died during this time period. And we probably couldn’t test for the presence for genetic diseases, becasue Ma and Pa Ingalls have no living descendants. Makes you wonder, though, why it was only boys… \*\* My thought exactly. I wonder if any of her mother’s sisters had sons that died in infancy. Sounds like one of these X-chromosone related conditions like hemophilia to me. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-laura-ingalls-family-have-a-genetic-disease/41748/13 "2000-11-18T20:01:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tsarina \* > \*\*oh, and didn’t the girl who played Mary on the TV show go blind, just like her character? > \*\* Melissa Sue Anderson played Mary. I really don’t think she was ever blind.