Hello BlackSwan,
That is a great name, btw. It reminds me of a book my husband read recently, about how we come up with our theorys - titled "The Black Swan. The Impact of the Highly Improbable". For example, back before the discovery of Australia, people in the Old World all believed that swans were white, because that is all they ever saw.....until someone made a discovery in Australia of black swans. I do have a point that relates to your question. To say that just because your family did not come from northern european ancestry, does not mean they could not have Thal. Do you remember that part in history about the Roman's coming up to the British Isles? And many of the Irish who came to America are Scots/Irish ancestry. I can't tell you how many times I have heard doctors say to me...."but your not from such and such area that has high incidence of Thal." Well, I think we are starting to see this disease is more wide spread than doctors have thought.
Joan