Can you inherit genes your parents don't have?

Question

My parents both have Black hair and brown eyes, and so does my brother. I am the only one with red hair and hazel eyes, but my parents dont recall any one down both family lines being a redhead. I checked that im not adopted..lol

Answer 1

red hair is a residual trait and could have been passed down unnoticed maybe even since red hair began to exist... never know..

Answer 2

You are the product of your whole family tree, not just your parents. They passed to you genetic characteristics that came from generations of ancestors. Sometimes these characteristics are dominant and sometimes they are recessive. Recessive genes can be passed on for generations and if both partners share a recessive gene, it can overpower the dominant gene. So your red hair could have come from a redheaded ancestor 'way back, or a blond ancestor, because blonds and brunettes frequently have redheaded children.

Answer 3

Everybody has recessive genes.  Both of your parents might carry the gene for red hair and hazel eyes.

Answer 4

You can inherit a recessive gene for red hair even if your parents don't have red hair themselves.  For example, my maternal grandmother had red hair--nothing unusual there, her dad was Irish, her mother Scots.  Two of her five children had red hair, but three of them didn't, including my mother.  Three of her ten grandchildren had red hair, but not my brother.  However, his youngest son out of four children has red hair, which obviously showed up because both he and his wife, who have blond hair and green eyes, carry recessive genes for red hair.

Answer 5

It is easy to say "no", but remember there are recessive genes.  Your parents would still have to pass them to you, but for them the genes were recessive. One of my brothers has red curly hair; all the rest of us have dark brown, straight hair.

This is the thing stories are made from...

Answer 6

YOUR PARENTS MAY NOT LOOK LIKE THEY CARRY A SPECIFIC GENE BUT THAT GENE COULD JUST BE RECESSIVE IN THEM...EVERYONE IN MY DAUGHTERS FATHER'S FAMILY HAS DARK HAIR AND DARK EYES BUT HE WAS BLONDE AND BLUE EYED...THERE WERE A LOT OF JOKES ABOUT A MAILMAN BUT I AM PRETTY SURE NO ONE WAS SERIOUS:)  SOME GENES ARE RECESSIVE FOR A FEW GENERATIONS THEN POP UP AGAIN...GOOD LUCK

Answer 7

well i have brown hair and blue and green eyes my parens have black and blond hair and have hazle and brown hair

Answer 8

did you that an estimated 10% of all fathers are raising children they believe to be theirs?

Answer 9

You can inherit dormant genes. Genes that are in your family line. My Dad had hazel eyes, my Mom brown but my Mom' mother had blue eyes. My sister & I both have blue eyes. I have cousins on my Mom's side of the family with both brown & blue eyes.

We have pictures of 5 generations in my Mom's side of the family all the kids look just alike at around age 3 to 6, it's spooky. That side of the family is strong, but I have a nephew who look just ike my Dad did in his 30's. Don't worry about it. My Dad always teased people who got too noisy that we had a blond hair blue eyed milkman. My sister was born when my parents lived in CT, me in Fl.

Answer 10

yes....somewhere in your family tree there has to have been at least one redhead or someone with hazel eyes.

Answer 11

yes it must mean someone in your family (mother,father) is a carrier, a carrier is a person that can inherit a gene or trait in there child even if they dont have trait