NURS 445 Week 1 Pedigree Project Part 1 Example

Pedigree Project Part 1: A Three-Generation Family Pedigree With Key, Ages and Disease Processes

How the Information Was Gathered

I built this pedigree from conversations with my mother, my father and my paternal grandmother over two weeks, confirming ages at diagnosis where relatives remembered them. I recorded the history using standard pedigree conventions and noted ages at diagnosis wherever relatives could recall them, because early onset is one of the clearest signals of inherited risk. Genomic knowledge is uneven even among nurse educators; in one survey of 85 educators, average scores on a genomic concept inventory were 53% (Dewell et al., 2026), which is one reason I approached this project carefully, checking each term before using it.

Key

• Square: male; circle: female
• Shaded symbol: affected by the condition marked beside it
• Diagonal line through symbol: deceased, with age at death
• Arrow: proband (me)
• Horizontal line between partners; vertical line to children

Generation I: Grandparents

• Paternal grandfather: male, died at 58 of a second heart attack; first heart attack at 52.
• Paternal grandmother: female, 81, type 2 diabetes since 65, hypertension.
• Maternal grandfather: male, died at 70 of colon cancer diagnosed at 68.
• Maternal grandmother: female, 86, hypertension, osteoporosis.

Generation II: Parents, Aunts and Uncles

• Father: male, 61, very high LDL cholesterol (230 mg/dL before treatment), heart attack with stent at 49, on a statin.
• Father's brother: male, died at 47 of a heart attack.
• Father's sister: female, 58, high cholesterol diagnosed at 30, on a statin.
• Mother: female, 60, breast cancer found at 44 and treated; she has never had genetic testing.
• Mother's sister: female, 57, ovarian cancer diagnosed at 51, in remission.
• Mother's brother: male, 63, healthy.

Generation III: Proband and Siblings

• Proband (me): female, 34, LDL cholesterol 190 mg/dL on last check, otherwise healthy.
• Brother: male, 37, LDL 205 mg/dL, started on a statin at 35.
• Sister: female, 30, healthy; cholesterol never checked.
• Proband's son: male, 6, healthy; no cholesterol testing yet, which the analysis will address.

Patterns and Gaps for Part 2

Two patterns stand out. On my father's side, three relatives had heart attacks before 55 and four relatives across three generations have very high cholesterol, a pattern consistent with familial hypercholesterolemia, an inherited condition that causes very high LDL cholesterol from birth and early heart disease (MedlinePlus, n.d.). On my mother's side, breast cancer at 44 and ovarian cancer at 51 in two sisters raise the question of a hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome; BRCA1 and BRCA2 remain the core of germline testing for these cancers, though other genes such as PALB2 and RAD51C also matter (Imyanitov & Sokolenko, 2026). Gaps include my maternal great-grandparents' histories, which no one remembers, and the fact that no relative has had genetic testing. A pedigree turns scattered family stories into a pattern a nurse can act on.

References

Dewell, S. L., Walker, T. K., Swadas, N. B., Ginn, C. S., & Benzies, K. M. (2026). Linking nursing knowledge and genomics (LINKAGE): Development of a knowledge engagement hub. Journal of Nursing Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20260709-01

Imyanitov, E., & Sokolenko, A. (2026). Breast-ovarian hereditary cancer syndrome: Beyond BRCA1 and BRCA2. Current Oncology, 33(9), 556. https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol33090556

MedlinePlus. (n.d.). Familial hypercholesterolemia. National Library of Medicine. https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/familial-hypercholesterolemia/