“Everyone Spoke Sign”
Imagine a place where one out of every four people were deaf and no one was considered handicapped. Once upon a time such a placed existed. It was an isolated island off the coast of Massachusetts called Martha’s Vineyard. For nearly 300 years deafness was commonplace and noted in almost every family.
If you lived on Martha's Vineyard in the 18th century chances were that you or one of your family members were deaf. This deafness was believed to be inherited from early mainland settlers that descended from a small region in England. They settled in the up-town area of the Vineyard known as Chilmark. The first known deaf settler was Jonathan Lambert, a carpenter who moved from Cape Cod to Martha's Vineyard. Two of his seven children were deaf.
By 1710 immigration to Martha’s Vineyard virtually stopped and the island became self-sufficient. This created a rather isolated gene pool and families intermarried. Until this century 32 surnames accounted for 75 percent of the up-island population. The gene for deafness was passed on with increasing frequency until one out of four people were born deaf.
Imagine a place where one out of every four people were deaf and no one was considered handicapped. Once upon a time such a placed existed. It was an isolated island off the coast of Massachusetts called Martha’s Vineyard. For nearly 300 years deafness was commonplace and noted in almost every family.
If you lived on Martha's Vineyard in the 18th century chances were that you or one of your family members were deaf. This deafness was believed to be inherited from early mainland settlers that descended from a small region in England. They settled in the up-town area of the Vineyard known as Chilmark. The first known deaf settler was Jonathan Lambert, a carpenter who moved from Cape Cod to Martha's Vineyard. Two of his seven children were deaf.
By 1710 immigration to Martha’s Vineyard virtually stopped and the island became self-sufficient. This created a rather isolated gene pool and families intermarried. Until this century 32 surnames accounted for 75 percent of the up-island population. The gene for deafness was passed on with increasing frequency until one out of four people were born deaf.
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