Patient has blank expression, sometimes deaf to spouse and children. Has no taste for work of any kind, except feverishly looking through records at libraries and courthouses. Has compulsion to write letters, swears at mailman when he does not leave mail. Frequents strange places such as cemeteries, ruins and remote desolate country areas. Makes secret night calls, hides phone bills from spouse, mumbles to self, has strange far-away look in eyes.
Medication is useless.
Disease is not fatal but gets progressively worse. You find an old family photo album and upon close examination, there are no names on the pictures. You find your family in the census and write to the county where they lived for 40 years, only to receive a letter stating all the county records burned. You learn there is a county history on microfilm of the county your ancestors originated. It has 16000 pages and is not indexed.