Geneology Of Grandparents Question?

Question

I know alot of people debate on this, Is it possible to look like or have features of Mothers Mom or Dad (im a guy)? or can it be possible to look like your cousin? Everybody tells me it is impossible to look alot like grandparents or cousins and other slightly distans relatives. Give me a breif explanation of genes and how they pass and WHAT they pass on, please answer my main quesiton to. Thanks!

Answer 1

Of course it is possible to have similar characteristics as other blood relatives. Here's an example: my great grandfather has very wide thumbs with a short nailbed. Of his eight children, three had this characteristic, including my grandmother. Of her six children, only one had this characteristic - one of my uncles. She has 19 grandchildren, and to my knowledge, five have the characteristic, including me. So far, none of her great-grandchildren have this characteristic.

Genes can either carry a trait or influence a trait, and play a role in nearly every physical feature we're born with, as well as many emotional and behavioral traits, such as a predisposition to addiction. Our environment and our choices help shape our emotions and behavior as well, so even if every member of your family had a history of alcohol addiction, that doesn't mean you have to as well.

Genes are carried through chemical coding on DNA. You get half your DNA from your biological mother and half from your biological father (meaning each of your grandparents provide 25% because they each gave your parent half their DNA. Great grandparents are 12.5%, great-greats 6.25% and so on back.)

When we're talking about family, it's also very subjective. People see what they want to see. Everyone always tells me my niece looks so much like me, which makes me smile because she's my step-brothers daughter - no blood relation at all. If we look alike, it's completely by accident.

Answer 2

I received a picture of my great grandfather some time ago and I could see resemblance to my Dad, brother and son.

I have a picture of from 100 years ago  on my mother's side where I look like everybody.

My children's father is the spitting image of his grandfather.  

(Unfortunately he also inherited his grandfather's rakish tendencies)

One cousin on my Dad's side looks just like Granny and another looks just like my niece.

So, yes you can look like an ancestor or relative.

Answer 3

You get your autosomal DNA from all your ancestors.  It determines your physical characteristic such as pigmentation, height etc.  

Your parents can carry recessive genes that don't show up in them but will show up in their children.  Who you look like has nothing to do with the s*x of the person except your grandmother probably didn't have a beard and you might eventually have one. .

My older sister looked more like my mother's younger sister than she did either of our parents.  Apparently my mother had the recessive genes that she passed on to my older sister.  

But it isn't impossible for you to get your appearance from your grandmother any more than from your grandfather just because you are a male.   So its no big deal.  

Also as people get older others see things in them they didn't see when they were younger.  Another thing, too many people look only at pigmentation when determining how someone looks like another.   My younger sister is brown eyed and tans very well.  I was born with red hair, blue eyes and have a skin cancer type complexion.  She topped off about 5'2" and I topped off at 5'6 1/4" but we shrink in old age.  A lot of people wouldn't think we are kin but we have the same facial shape and our paternal grandmother's nose.

I have a bone anomaly in my left foot from my maternal grandfather.  My mother didn't have it.  My older sister's granddaughter had the same anomaly in her right foot.  It is a very high arch with some additional bone where it shouldn't be and lack of bone support at the arch. .  My sister and my nephew had flat feet like my father.  It skipped 3 generations to get to my older sister's granddaughter.

Tell your friends they don't know what they are talking about.

Answer 4

You can look like cousins and grandparents yes. I look like my great grandma on my mothers fathers side, but I have the hairline of my moms mom.

Answer 5

I look exactly like my mom's mother...and nothing like my mom at all. Go figure. I don't even look that much like my dad, and ironically I look more like his dad than I look like my dad. Maybe I'm really the daughter of my maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather in secret...except for the fact that my paternal grandpa died 26 years before I was born. Genes are a finicky lot. There's no telling how they're going to combine and recombine on down the road.