Question of the Week: What traits do you see being passed from generation to generation in your family?

Question

What sorts of traits do you see being passed from generation to generation in your family? 

PS Reshare the question on Facebook to get your family and friends talking.

Comments

That's very interesting--supports what I'm saying. Lots of people have the downturned U mouth---but have no idea they have any Asian or Indigenous blood--& it may not even show-up in their DNA if at conception those ancestors' DNA wasn't pulled from.

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There is a trace amount of Amerindian and Sami in my DNA.

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• My great-grandfather died from a "stomach problem".
• My paternal grandfather died from abdominal cancer.
• My father suffered from "heartburn"
• I had heartburn and GERDS until it was treated.
• My son has heartburn and lactose intolerance (inherited from his mother).

And I inherited my paternal grandmother's long eye lashes.

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I also have a severe lactose intolerance. And in the last year and a half or so I found I am very sensitive to both brewers and bakers yeast (which is in everything). I knew I had an additional issue since I would be careful and it didn't matter. I have to be very selective as to what I eat.

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So do you or any of your elders, Laura (Morin) have the down-turned mouths, or not? : )

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Yes, unfortunately, I do. And so does my mother, both of her sisters and my female cousins.  It is a very common trait of the women on my maternal side. I can trace it back to my 4th GGM, Dorcas Hyatt Traywick.

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Question to Laura.  Is it greatly downturned?  I had to actually check for my downturn.  But it is there. I guess we just have to smile a lot. Which I guess I do anyway.

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it's All good....we are unique w/ our down-turned mouths : )

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Linda, it is down turned enough that it's quite noticeable. When my face is "resting" it makes me look like I'm mad all the time.  When I smile, my smile is straight instead of up turned like most. 

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Just remember you smile with your whole face like  your eyes and your cheeks and your personality. Like I saId I never even noticed at all mine are downturned but they clearly are. And I have never once noticed anyone elses are. But I am going to check now to see out of curiosity.  I would say most people but us would not notice.

Answer 1

Melancholy.  Starts with me, then my mom and her father.  In his line we have 2 suicides and one who died in a mental institution.

Comments

Marcie use this knowledge as power! Remind yourself that this is a condition you have, not a condition that has you!!! And if you ever feel like you can't shake those feeling seek treatment. Educate your descendants. Your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren etc They are all related to the central person where this trait started.

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Thank you for this reply!  I have been obtaining treatment most of my adult life, when needed, and educating my son as well.

Answer 2

Independence, stoicism, benevolence, generosity, ingenuity, creativity, artistic, adaptability, green thumb gardeners, outdoors people and curly hair! Personality-wise, one of my sons is a clone of my maternal grandfather. I sometimes have to stop and remind myself that he is not my grandfather. A little unnerving at times because my grandfather was the number one person in my childhood, closely followed by my grandmother. My son's facial features and personality are strictly my grandfather's. Unfortunately, my son inherited his father's height, not my grandfather's, who was over 6-ft tall.

Answer 3

Looking back at quite a few men in my family tree it looks like heart disease is something to watch for as many died of heart attacks. And the women dementia. Though my uncle had it too, but I guess the heart attacks killed the men before they could get it.

But a good thing we all seem to share is the eyes and the smile. And decent teeth.

Answer 4

Very dark auburn hair and monovision.  The latter is where you are nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other.  We were made for monocles.  :)

Comments

Never heard of monovision before.  Do you know what the prevalance of that is?

Answer 5

Artistic ability, high IQ, verbal giftedness, unusually tall people, mitrial valve prolapse, strabismus and great senses of humor!

Answer 6

On my dad's side: burly frames, especially for the men; square shoulders, and rather evenly distributed weight. For a good idea of what this looks like, here's an accessible example: I remember the first time I watched Frozen with my mother, she said the character Kristoff looked shockingly like my father when he was younger.

There's a lot of Swedish heritage on both my paternal grandfather and paternal grandmother's portions of my tree (with names like Johnson, Botruff, and Tinberg, this should be no surprise).

On my mom's side: thin lips, and jowly faces in old age. I once remember my mom saying that the Queen of England (Elizabeth II) looked like her grandma (not sure about which one; possibly her maternal grandmother). No surprise, the vast majority of her ancestry came from the United Kingdom, either in the late 1800s or back in the colonial era. And, if my great uncle's extensive research is to be believed (I'm not sure if it is entirely true outside of the States), we are distantly related to English royalty. Haven't traced back far on here or on Ancestry to prove this to be actually true, though.

In addition, my younger brother looks shockingly similar to how my maternal grandpa looked as a young man (in one of our genealogy books there's a photo of him making a face exactly like my brother, with a haircut very similar to his). My younger sister looks shockingly similar to photos I've found of my great-great grandmother, Gladys (Crane) Joiner, in her younger years.

Answer 7

Love of music and performing.

Answer 8

A definite artistic flare.  Working artists, teaching artists, studying art and getting a degree artists, university-wants-your-stuff artists, gallery show artists, lots of doing other things for a living but doing art because we must artists.

Answer 9

Diabetes and heart disease on my father's side, and ovarian cancer on my mother's. My double 2nd cousin just got diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year, and was found to have an uncommon cancer gene. I have not yet been tested, and the test is pricey, and cannot be done locally. Baldness, from my maternal grandfather. Neither his father nor grandfathers seemed to have it, so he may have inherited it from his mother's family, which I have no photos of. He went bald in his 20's, as did his son. My brother went bald in his 30's. Red/Green color blindness. From same grandfather. My brother got it, too.

Both sides of my family tend to be night owls. Mostly even tempered, intelligent, with a lot of musical talent, the latter of which I did not inherit. My mother's side of my family tends to have a long face. I inherited my father's round face, and my mother's nose and voice. And shyness, on my mother's side. Many of us are painfully shy and have to learn how to grow out of it as we mature. Both sides of my family are pretty scientific--biologists, chemists, doctors, computer geeks, engineers, etc.

Answer 10

Musical ability. In my family, it was never a question of whether one would learn a musical instrument, only "which one". Even though we were poor, money was found to buy me a flute - even before I could play it (I still have it). I played the flute in high school and now sing Gregorian chant and polyphony in a church choir.

My mother's mother majored in music in college, played the piano and the organ, and gave piano lessons. My mother's father played bass violin in a "family orchestra" that played for Croatian gatherings in Cleveland in the 1930's.

My father had a beautiful voice; his parents were in Vaudeville (singing and tap dancing). A cousin on my father's side - Ernest F. Wagner - was a famous flutist in the NY Philharmonic in the 1930's. He was also descended from professional musicians, according to census records.

Answer 11

I had an odd incident occur to me linked to this weeks question. A few years ago while I was researching my convicts I found a newspaper article and a transcript for a trial in Wales for a direct ancestor of mine on my mother's father's side, it occurred in the late 1700s / early 1800s. In these documents there was a description of my ancestor's running style and the fact that he could/did out run the police over a long distance, in fact someone in the trial commented on how all in this man's family had the ability to run long distances.

The odd thing for me was as I was reading this description I realised that this was a family trait that I had inherited from this man and it had been passed done the generations - I am not the only one in my family to have this odd hip movement and to partake in long distance running. I know that the particular line in my family that are direct descendants of this man have all been known at some stage of their lives for their running abilities. I had (until this point in time) always wonder where this ability came from - I found out that day and I let everyone in the family know.

Thanks for reading.

Comments

I love to research my outlaws. I have always been interested in a good moonshine and murder story. Anyways... I once found an article similar to yours on one of my family outlaw. The actual wording was "he ran like a deer"  lol

By the way, this evening I will be attending my sons high school track meet. Where he is a stand-out athletic sprinter, who is decorated with medals!

Answer 12

Either you'll be full grey by 25 or stay jet black till 60+

Comments

haha - we are all sporting greys by 25 

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I worked with a guy who had a full head of white hair in his 20s. His nickname was Snow Monkey. My brother in law has a full set of dentures, like his Dad they lost all their teeth in their 20s, luckily my husband has all his!

Answer 13

Colorb!indness. My husband and our daughters 3 sons are all colorblind.

Answer 14

Syndactyly, webbed digits, on my mother's side. So far, I know my maternal uncle had both fingers and toes that were webbed. I am the only other one that I know of. I have webbed toes on both feet.

Answer 15

I already answered with some genetic conditions that are passed on, but this question is so intriguing!! So today I looked at my overall and see that most ancestors had very long lives for their time and place. I have not done an average, but it's going to be close to 80+,  even way back, discounting the accidentals, like struck by lightning. Feeling very grateful to be here and blessed to have my Ancestors.

Answer 16

Paternal twins every generation for the past six (not sure beyond that.)  Also, sadly, bipolar disorder - more prevalent in successive generations. :-( Courage and tenacity (okay, stubbornness) with a strong work ethic.  Lots of mechanical ability; excel at pattern recognition.

Answer 17

I suppose this all depends on which genes you inherit from which parents, My Eccles Family are known to be a musically family, I am tone deaf! well maybe an exaggeration  but I certainly can not hold a tune, 

My Mercer family (female) were all known to have very long dark hair, but yet My Singleton, Pye lines had Blonde hair and Blue eyes, I inherited the blue eyes, My Sister the blonde hair and blue eyes though it's only blonde until about 15 years old and then darkens (So not the Scandinavian White Blonde)

Diseases - The only inherit one I am aware of  is Glaucoma - Father's side, a few relatives have osteoarthritis and age related diabetes but they are not necessarily hereditary.

Intelligence - A lot of my Ancestors were Farmers so it's difficult to say what their intellect was they wouldn't have needed it, but I believe My Maternal Grandfather had an eye for 'Good' Cattle and was a dealer for other folk (He bought cattle for other people on his recommendation) - not sure if this was an hereditary trait or acquired, he was good at weather forecasting too, I remember One year we brought the hay in very early due to a storm coming the week after. (British weather is not predictable that I am aware of) 

I do think that an high IQ might run in my Paternal Side - At 14 my Dad was top  of his class (though missing the previous 12 months of schooling due to illness) and my Grandfather was bordering on eccentricity though very clever. 

My Mum says I have the creative gene, not sure were this comes from (more investigation needed!) Maybe the 'Musically' gene as surfaced as an artistic one. Though I have to get in the zone to do this because I am more analytical in my approach to normal life. Its like I have to activate a different part of my brain! So helps when I am off work and chilled 

Mental Illness /  Neurological - not known though my Grandfather had PTS (Shell-shock) and I have a few instances that I am unsure of one of my Auntie supposedly had St Vitus Dance (she fell asleep for a week! this doesn't sound like it to me but that's how it was diagnosed) and a Great Aunt had another that included stuttering / shaking someone has suggested dystonia.

    

Comments

A good intellect serves farmers well.  It's just not always easily noticed or measured in that profession. You need to be a veterinarian, biologist, mechanic, meteorologist, an accountant and more.

Answer 18

I have double-jointed thumbs that we call the "Ungerecht thumb" because it comes from that side of the family.  I don't know how far it goes back, it's not something that gets written down.

Answer 19

I have small red moles all over called cherry hemaginomas.  They increase in frequency as I get older and get bigger with age.  I have one on the middle of my forehead in my profile picture.  When my son was a toddler I told him it was my atomic forehead laser, like the one Gigan has in the Godzilla movies.  I inherited these from my father, who also had them.

Fine hair comes from my paternal grandmother.

Short stature comes from my mother.  I am taller than she was and she was taller than her mother.  I am about 5 foot one inch and seem to shrink as I age, as they did.

My mother's Mueller family had vascular problems.  My mother died of a brain aneurysm; she also had hypertension.  Her brother died of a stroke.  Their father died of a blood clot following surgery for hemorrhoids.

I inherited the lips of my great-grandmother Ottilie Koerth Schilling.

They all had blue eyes, as I do.

Answer 20

Piercing huge blue eyes and thick thick fast growing lustrous blond hair .  Trigger finger. Knees that always announce their presence. High IQ, facility with languages. Artistic.