Does anyone besides me think that Mary's frequent travels through the countries of Europe may have exacerbated Tad's illness? Tuberculosis ran in my family until modern medicine. I have ancestors from both Scotland and England who came to America to escape the climates that doctors of the 1700s caused the disease. When my great-grandparents were married in Baltimore, she had a touch of the disease. My great-grandfather was working in the city, but was advised to bring his wife to his family's home in Southern Maryland for the fresher air.