Do I Really Look Like Her

Is it possible to look like your ancestors, but not really knowing that you look like your ancestors?

This is based on the randomness of DNA. When a child is “created” it gets 50% of the DNA of each of it’s parents. Siblings are sharing roughly 50% of DNA with each other. That means that siblings get also 50% different DNA from their parents.Let’s go one generation further. Each child gets 25% of the DNA of each of it’s 4 grandparents. That 25% might be the looks of your paternal grandfather or some specific personal traits (curly hair, red hair, tall/small etc.). So your second eldest brother got some features of your father’s great grandfather (that would make it a 6.25% of shared DNA of this paternal great great grandfather (your father’s great grandfather) and all other siblings didn’t get those “looks” (or the DNA responsible for their look was replaced by some other ancestors DNA).Lastly, keep in mind that we as humans always try to look for these attributes and say “oh, you look like your father”. I heard these comments many times about my adoptive father and myself, obviously there’s no chance I could had “his looks”. It was just that people made the assumption based on the fact that they believed he was my biological father.We’re all unique because we have a blend of randomness from our ancestors in us. Not just 4–5 generations, many more. But we’re never having all our ancestors DNA in us, as we “lose” already 50% of our parents DNA. Consider this.

Will most women (men) really look like their mothers (fathers) when they grow old?

Not necessarily. In fact, you should look to a woman’s paternal grandmother.Males are designated by XY chromosomes, while females are designated by XX chromosomes. Males are merely carriers of the X chromosome, so they pass down the exact copy of their mother’s X chromosome to their daughters. Therefore, women inherit most genetic material from their paternal grandmother.My paternal grandmother had ten children and four sons, and though she died while I was very young (I was the youngest child of her youngest child), I can see this genetic factor amongst the many daughters of her sons. If you lined us all up, you would see how much we look alike. We all have similar slender builds as our 90lb grandmother for one thing! My cousins on my mother’s side do not even look like they’re related to me.Lifestyle factors make a huge difference as well. If you learned bad habits from your mother and continue them into adulthood, those would also affect aging and bodyweight. It’s interesting to get your 23andme testing done for these reasons. While my bodyweight was predicted, based on genetics, to be 14% lower than average, my actual weight was 25 lbs lower than what they predicted for me. They attributed this factor to lifestyle choices, and I do take careful care with my diet and exercise.Science aside, I have always joked that I turned into my father. We have the exact same personality.I think it’s best to remember that human choice is a huge factor in our destinies, in regards to anything.