Of course, when you first see a doctor about possible migraines, they want to know if you have a family history. Initially, I said I didn't have a family history. The neurologist said I probably did.
In retrospect, I realize Mom had migraines, but oddly enough, they seem to have struck mainly in old age. I was born when Mom was nearly 40 years old. She was perimenopausal (as I am now) when I was in elementary school. If she'd had the "migraine experience" while perimenopausal that I'm having, there's no way she could have hidden it from my father and me. So I'm pretty sure there were few, if any, bad migraines at that time.
When Mom was not-quite-62, she and my father traveled to my college graduation. I'm sure such an event would be stressful no matter what, but Mom especially hated travel. The day before the graduation, Mom had a terrible headache, and threw up. I ended up taking her to the student health center, where they gave her some codeine and let her sleep it off. I now realize that headache was probably a migraine.
Thereafter, my father told me, Mom frequently had headaches, but refused to seek any medical care for them. Mom hated seeing doctors or receiving any kind of medical treatment. So there was never a diagnosis.
Lots of people who think they have no family history of Migraine discover that they really do when they dig deeper. I thought Migraine was only on my mother's side of the family, but looking at more recent research, we now think my father probably had Migraines too. I can remember him being in misery for days with "sinus headaches." Now we know that 90% of what people think are sinus headaches are Migraines. His mother had "sick headaches" that were probably Migraines too.
More people are being properly diagnosed these days, but it's still estimated that perhaps as many as 50% of Migraineurs are still undiagnosed.
It's great that you've been able to look at this in your family.
Teri