While Th8 Rev. & Col. Charles Minn Thruston lived to a ripe old age of over 73, five children by two different wives as well as four siblings died young while the dates of death of 6 of his children are missing as is for one sibling and three siblings died between 2 and 3 years. His mother lived long, but his father only reached 57, and the paternal grandparents lived long too. I believe I read that Susanna Perry was taken back to England by her husband for treatment and concluded that she died of tuberculosis, but a review of Mrs. George Nicholas's notes (Ni3-5) shows no statement on the cause.

So a genetic tendency to develop such tumors is possible. This would be supported by the very young death of the maternal grandfather, US Congressman Patrick Henry Pope, if it were due to a brain tumor, but a Pope genealogy originally published about 1900 and recently found on the Internet attributes the low number of survivng Popes in Kentucky at the end of the 19th century to marriages to consumptive wives without actually saying that his mother and the early Thruston family in general died of consumption. As the disease is contagious and was very common at the time is seems to be the more likely cause of most of the early deaths in this branch of the family than congenital brain cancer. Although the deaths of an aunt and a first cousin and now the granddaughter of a first cousin from brain cancer do speak for a congenital factor increasing the probability of such a development.

If there is any hereditary brain cancer evidenced here, it may not be caused by a single gene but a combination of two or more, which explains it skipping one generation or more. A survey of other Thruston, Buckner and Perry lines would seem advisable before drawing any conclusions about hereditary brain cancer.