Is there a family resemblance? a curiosity thread

[Jill Eaton]

What about none-physical inherited  traits such as athleticism, clumsiness, artistic or mathematical ability, wisdom, courage, brashness, leadership, thrift, foolishness, etc. Are these as genetically inherited as facial/bodily  similarities? I am currently discussing this with cousins. It's a hot topic!

Martin

Is it nature or nurture? Difficult to decide.

My dad loved to sketch. My brother and sister were always drawing and I used to be at first a cartographer and then a graphic designer. So I'd like to think there is an artistic trend on my dad's side.

There is absolutely no athleticism on either side of family!

I adore history and archaeology which I share with my aunt and my eldest daughter. I didn't get this from my parents as I used to drag them around castles and stately homes..... eventually, they learned to love them too

[Llwyd]

I bear a facial resemblance to my dad and my paternal grandfather. I haven't yet found a photograph of my g/grandfather. However, according to other members of the family, including my wife, son and daughter, I seem to have inherited a tendency to short temperedness. I, of course, deny it.

[ThrelfallYorky]

One of my parents was very talented at Art ... and the parent of the other parent was too, so it came from both sides, surprised no-one in the family when I proved to have ability, and followed it up with becoming a Graphic Designer. There were also lots of teachers in the family - drat, I went and did that too! We had lots of high class decorators and painters, in a family firm, and I'm more than happy hanging wallpaper etc, but I'm no gardener, and that's there somewhere, too.... Can't have everything....

[lizdb]

This thread reminds me of when, many years ago, I met up with a fellow researcher tracing my husbands family. 
The common ancestor was my husbands Great-great grandfather, this person being descended from one of my husbands great grandfather's sisters.

We arranged to meet in the café of the Family History Centre in Islington (remember that anyone?). I was slightly cautious about going up to London to meet up with a strange man! So he sent me a photo so I would stand a chance at recognising him and not have to approach every man sitting on his own in the cafe.  When it came, he was the absolute spitting image of my husbands father!  To the point that, when I showed it to our children, without telling them any clues at all about who this picture was, and asked them who it looked like, they both independently immediately said "Grandpa".

[Finley 1]

Sometimes ---  you can be 'drawn' to a person -- a stranger in a cafe - and discover they are actually related.

Many years ago after a visit to the Ashmolean with Uni..( I went to Uni in my 50's - better late than never ). I sat next to a lady that turned out to be a Sutherland visiting from Australia.....

Rosie Sutherland if I remember right.   So I wonder if she is on here... nice to be in touch again..

xin

[dowdstree]

I definitely bear a striking resemblance to my paternal great grandfather if you take away the moustache. A female edition of him. 

We used to joke about my daughter's nose and wondered where she inherited it from as it was so different from any known family member. Last year I was given a photograph of my great grandmother by a family member and there was my daughter's nose on this previously unseen lady.

Also, if my daughter puts her hair up the resemblance is even more striking.

The lady in question is my avator.

Dorrie

[coombs]

Our lifelong friend (who is my dad's age and generation) reminds me of my paternal grandmother. They look alike and have similar builds. A couple of years ago I helped this very friend research her family tree. Her great gran came from the same village as my great grandfather (father of my paternal gran). And I then found we shared ancestors from further back. This friends sister was always known affectionately as "Auntie Maggie" and in fact she was an aunty in a way, at least a distant cousin of mine. Small world. I can be forgetful as can this friend/distant rellie and I say "family trait then".

[Jill Eaton]

It was my Mother-in-law who worked out that my father-in-laws male maternal-line cousins were actually much closer related than just cousins - they were half-brothers too. They shared a father. Shenanigans with the wife's sister. The resemblance between them all was striking, particularly since that resemblance was to their father/uncle.

DNA testing later proved the accuracy of the hunch.

[JAKnighton]

A couple of years ago I stopped an elderly man in the street because of his shocking resemblance to a photo of my great-great-great grandfather and sure enough, it was his grandson.