What makes us what we are? The old nature versus nurture debate isn’t one anymore. We know that our genetic inheritance is only a part of what shapes us. We are, of course, shaped by our experiences throughout our lives, but perhaps most so when we are children. What we learn from our parents depends not only on their genes, but perhaps most strongly on cultural inheritance, the ideas, philosophies, literary preferences, religious beliefs, likes, dislikes and prejudices passed down from our ancestors and blended together into an ethical, artistic and intellectual amalgam.

So often in the Alzheimer’s conversation, or that of any disease with genetic links, as the search for clarity around a diagnosis is paramount, discussion of family history brings parents and extended family into sharp view for that purpose alone – their DNA trail.