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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Pejic on Wednesday 26 October 11 04:31 BST (UK)
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Does anyone know of any research/reports of studies regarding odd abnormalities in families?
For example extra digits,multiple births.
In my family we have 2 I know of
1. The white flash o hair at the center of the forehead (my mother and her brother)
2. A hairless penny sized ring under the right lower jaw (me and my cousin)
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The medical archives are full of reports about genetic illnesses; obviously being able to sequence the genome will lead to a lot more research but there is still a lot of info around, based on observation and painstaking family studies.
Any deafness in your family to go with the white streak of hair?
Check out Waardenburg syndrome - as a possible?
For recognised genetic disorders, this is a good support/info site
http://www.geneticalliance.org.uk/
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I know multiple births are more prevalent in some families than others, but is there any medical evidence to back it up?
I am curious on this myself.
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Two small points of resemblance in our family:
-My son and his girl cousin ( my bro's girl) both have the same molar tooth which grew twisted through 180 degrees- no problem aesthetically or medically to them but interesting especially as they are of similar age and look very alike- like twins.
- My dad and I both have a similarly shaped flat "cafe au lait"-type mark in the same place on the thigh- my son has the same mark in same place but it is white, has no colour/pigmentation.
Not medical things at all, but does make you wonder what else is passed down with the genes.
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Does anyone know of any research/reports of studies regarding odd abnormalities in families?
1. The white flash o hair at the center of the forehead (my mother and her brother).
My hubby's friend , all of his siblings have this ( there are 8 of them ) their father and grandmother the same. The children of the 8 all have it, the next generation. Without naming them, because everyone in the area knows them- from the white streak. It's pretty amazing.
I am double jointed on two of my toes on both feet ( the one next to your big toe and the other next to the little toe ), my father the same, and my son the same -exactly the same toes .
Kind regards
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I once worked in a school where one lad had a white streak of hair in the centre at the front- his nickname was "badge" (he was quite good-humoured about this)- it took me a while to realise it was short for badger. With the advent of the fashion to highlighted hair, he looked rather stylish, as did his sister who had the same feature.
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I am told and my slender experience of the surname seems to confirm it, that people surnamed Haresign have a very high frequency of the deformity hare lip in their families.
Many years ago I knew a large family of 10 or 11 children where their father and all his sons had a cleft palate, and their speech was very difficult to understand, conversely the daughters were apparently normal.
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I have heard the same about people called Crooktoe and I believe one of the the Scottish clans had many more than usual left handed people - to such an extent that the spiral staircases in their castles went the other way (I'm thinking Cameron, but not certain).
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Whether that is the case with Scottish castles I don't know, but Norman castles incorporated such a system in their defences to ensure that attacking forces were exposed on their right hand sides and unable to deflect missiles with their shields.
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The left-handed thing must be genetic, as my wife and son both are. The same applies to double-jointedness (if it's not a word, it is now!); both my wife and I are, and naturally so is our son.
I developed type 1 diabetes at 21; at the time the specialist told me that it was thought to be genetic, even though no-one in my immediate family had it. Interestingly, as I delved more closely into my family history, I discovered that not only did my father die from kidney failure (which I already knew) but also his own mother. Then going back a generation, my great-grandmother (my grandmother's mother) was a diabetic. So you can see how the gene was passed down. Kidney failure is often a sign of border-line diabetes.
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My maternal grandfather and one of his brothers (out of a total of fourteen children) had two thumbs on their right hand. I have a photo of their father as a very old man and had never noticed the same trait can be clearly seen in the picture until I found him on the 1891 census and saw the entry in the final column which read "Two Thumbs on right hand from Birth".
Ermy
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I once met a man who literally had two left feet! His left hand had all the shape and appearance of a foot while his right hand was entirely normal. I wonder if it was an inherited trait, or just a one off mutation?
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Hi Ermintrude
My grandfather also had two thumbs but his were on his left hand. I see from your interests that you have Curtis family from Wiltshire and wondered if this was the line with the two thumbs as my grandfather's mother was Florence Curtis from Wiltshire. How strange if they were related :)
Nashua
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I have arthritis and one of the aspects of it is an eye condition called iritis (or uveitis)...
I have only ever met two other people with this condition. One is my brother ... and the other is a third cousin I met a few years ago via Genes Reunited! We have some letters from early 1900s between her great grandfather and my great grandfather which mention's his arthritis so we know the genes are in the family - but very interesting to see such a specific aspect of it carried down both lines.
Milly ;D
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At a small meeting of distant cousins, most of whom had not previously met, 4 out of 5 of us had type 2 diabeties, with none of us being overweight. I know mine is inherited, as my father had it.
I am of course aware that it is an increasingly common disease, but even so 4 out of 5.....................
I have thumbs that bend back 90 degrees at the first joint, as do my 2 children ::)
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I tried to modify my reply no 7, but kept getting told after trying save that the board didn't exist.
I should have said Sillitoe not Crooktoe and I wanted to add Cruickshank as another example.
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At a small meeting of distant cousins, most of whom had not previously met, 4 out of 5 of us had type 2 diabeties, with none of us being overweight. I know mine is inherited, as my father had it.
I am of course aware that it is an increasingly common disease, but even so 4 out of 5.....................
I have thumbs that bend back 90 degrees at the first joint, as do my 2 children ::)
After my post earlier in this thread, are you sure we aren't related, Helen? LOL
Double-jointed, diabetic (type 1 though).
:) Darren
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I tried to modify my reply no 7, but kept getting told after trying save that the board didn't exist.
I should have said Sillitoe not Crooktoe and I wanted to add Cruickshank as another example.
Isn't the name Cruickshank derived from someone with a limp, or club foot?
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Hi Nashua,
That's interesting but my Curtis line is on my father's side whilst the thumbs are on my mother's (Jones) side. My Curtis family were from the Downton/ Whiteparish/ Bramshaw/ Minstead areas of the New Forest, be interested to hear if you think we may have a connection.
Ermy
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Hi Ermy
Thanks for the reply. My Curtis family were from Charlton, Hankerton & Alderton area near Malmesbury so probably not connected. What a coincidence if we had found a link through the double thumbs :)
Nashua
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Hi,
My sister & our maternal grand mother have white streaks. My maternal aunt and my son have cross bight on their front teeth ( top teeth protude over bottom but not bucked tooth). All the known males on my paternal line for 3 generations ( including the teetototal ones) have gout. We also have stuttering and deafness, and rare inherited blindness.
But for me, records for my convict ggg grandfather, indicate he had several raised moles on the back of his neck on the RHS. So have I. Gazania
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Would male pattern baldness count?
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I would, Redroger.
Oops I made mistakes in my previous posting:
Cross bite where the bottom front teeth protrude over top
Gout is present in 4 generations that we know of.
Gazania
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Three generations,our father, my brother and I and my son all have the same pattern of baldness, yet none of my nephews do, though they have patterns seen elsewhere in family photos. Obviously a more subtle process than straight pass on from generation to the next.
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I have heard the same about people called Crooktoe and I believe one of the the Scottish clans had many more than usual left handed people - to such an extent that the spiral staircases in their castles went the other way (I'm thinking Cameron, but not certain).
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Both my father and I are left handed and descend from Cameron and Mackenzie lines. However, the left handed spiral staircase was the Kerr Clan and as yet I haven't found any Kerrs ancestors. I was interested to see this :
""But the Kerrs were aye the deadliest foes
That e’er to Englishmen were known
For they were all bred lefthanded men
And ‘fence against them there was none"
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And that's why we drink a toast in our right hand; the theory is if you are holding a glass, you can't draw a weapon. I wonder if known left-handed people were required to do the opposite?
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Left handed spirals were built in order to make it more difficult for right handed attackers to use their shield for defensive purposes against missiles when attacking a fortress.
Pinefamily, the glass may be poisoned of course!
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Not the poisoned chalice!
:)
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There are many intances of unusual features being hereditary. Something as simple as certain shaped earlobes, noses, even height (or lack of it). My grandfather always appeared short in the photos I have of him. One of my older cousins related to me how he wore size 2 shoes! And several of his cousins in New Zealand were jockeys.
Hair colour is another one that is passed down.
Darren
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Well I am pleased to find out that in researching my maternal side of the family there is a high percentage of women living well into their eighties and nineties!
I have a long way to go yet............Haha.
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That's one no-one has mentioned yet, Croxia. Longevity.
There does seem to be longevity (or conversely, a lack of it) in some family lines.
It is interesting to see though when an ancestor moved that the longevity often disappeared in subsequent generations, especially in the bigger cities and towns.
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This is certainly apparent on my mother's line, both sides of it, both she, her sister, and very many of their relatives lived into their late 90s. (Mum was over 99). There is at least one certain centenarian, and I think three, but the other two are as yet unproven. The trait has been apparent over many generations, her grandmother, my great grandmother was over 91 at her death, and many of her generation lived into their 90s.
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Hiyas,,
I grew up apart from my siblings,,,,and later in life all one female sibling wanted to do was check my chin...
My female line all have a scar (like a finger nail poke) under our chin...I have it and so do my female siblings...our daughters also have it....
YET,,,myself and my siblings who were all born with dads features were all sports orientated and all got into horses/dogs etc.....awards etc
and all the ones with mums features were more stay at home...and do nothing much...(like mum)
Bored
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We've got a few of these on my mother's side - longevity, double-jointedness/hypermobility - both in females only.
Also enhanced sensitivity to caffeine.
Here's another one: our tonsils grow back after being removed! (Again, mother's side, but applies to both sexes).
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Here's another one: our tonsils grow back after being removed! (Again, mother's side, but applies to both sexes).
I understand that is not uncommon and usually due to an incomplete removal.