Does PMR run in families?

My maternal aunt and I both had PMR/GCA. Mine started in 2020, after an ankle injury. My aunt injured her back prior to onset of her PMR/GCA. Our ancestry is predominantly Southern Italian. I have some English ancestry as well.
My mother-in-law, predominantly English Ancestry, and also some French, also had GCA.
I often think it's a good thing I didn't have any children as they would probably not stand a chance against this disorder.

I would say yes from my reading and experience. My mother had it. I have been in remission since November 2023 but it’s taken 18 months to feel mostly normal again. I got it during a very stressful period moving house and retiring. I also had a short virus just before it. Stress, viruses that create an immune response , age and gender all play a part. However my mother’s heritage is from that Viking ring and 20% of my DNA is Scandinavian. So I have all the possible sparks needed to make this wretched disease fly. I live in Australia and get plenty of vitamin D. Good luck to you all on this journey. Nourishing food, rest and exercise is critical to getting through it. I hope I don’t see this visitor at my door again.

No one else in my family or extended family has PMR or even heard of it. However, we do have a tendency for autoimmune disorders. My father suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and other members have had Crohn's disease and several other autoimmune conditions.

"We do have a tendency for autoimmune disorders."
-------------------------------
This is the key to the genetic question. Don't ask about PMR because most people don't know it exists. When you start to ask about autoimmune disorders in general you might get a different answer.

When I was very young ... I had an uncle on my mother's side who called me a "Swede." I had no idea what that meant so I just ignored it. Genetically speaking ... I do have Scandinavian genes. Blond hair ... blue eyes were my traits except my hair is grey now.

I'm HLA-B27 positive. That gene ... HLA-B27 is linked to Scandinavia, specifically with higher prevalence rates in Northern Scandinavia and Finland compared to other regions of Europe. The prevalence of HLA-B27 is also correlated with the incidence of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), a type of arthritis, and other inflammatory diseases.

There are many autoimmune syndromes that can happen if you are HLA-B27 positive. Nobody knows why this particular gene predisposes people to autoimmune disease. I just know HLA-B27 positive is now plastered everywhere in my medical records.
https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1201027-overview.
-----------------------------
To get a better idea about what can happen --click on the "view media gallery" link underneath the picture of the eye in the above link.

I think you’ve hit the mark here. I was lucky to only get this at 72 but my son developed Tyoe 1 diabetes, also higher in Scandinavia, when he was 28. No family history of the particular disease. My daughter at 52 has just discovered by accident that she has another thing that is not quite called an autoimmune disease but is related. It only has letters iGg4. So autoimmune disease tendency is probably the better way to look at it.

Interesting about iGg4. I have never heard of it.

What I have heard before is the following:

"These patients usually have a good recovery after being treated with systemic glucocorticosteroids. The response to steroids is so dramatic that it is has been suggested as one diagnostic criterion for the disease."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499825/

Yes but it’s not a cure unlike for PMR - it can be the end if you’re lucky. Length of life is unaffected by PMR directly but iGg4 has a life expectancy of around 20yrs after diagnosis. But they don’t know a lot about it so I’m hoping that’s not the case for my daughter’s sake.