Family inherited features (not DNA testing)

[pinefamily]

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.

[Ermintrude46]

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

[Redroger]

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?

[nashua]

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

[millymcb]

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

[Helen D]

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

[Pejic]

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.

[pinefamily]

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

[pinefamily]

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?