2024 52 Ancestors: Origins - Physical Traits

Ever wonder who you inherited your dashing good looks from, those cute dimples, or how about that thinning hair line and thick love handles? 

This week, I'm exploring the origins of physical traits in my family tree.

The first one that instantly comes to mind are my eyes. I know exactly who I got the color from versus the shape of them! Many babies' irises can be seen changing colors for their first six months or so. I was told my parents thought for sure I was going to inherit my dad's blue eyes, because they stayed that way even nearing the 2 year mark. However, they ended up turning hazel -- the color of my mom's eyes.

(Left) Beatrice (Millhouse) Foltz; (Right) Kira Foltz

Now, as for the shape of my eyeballs, I have my dad to thank for that! And I know this, because we have the same football-shaped stigmatism in each of our right eyes. Plus, a lazy eyelid over it, to boot!

(Left) Gary Foltz; (Right) Kira Foltz

My long lashes definitely came from my maternal side. But I even beat my mom a bit in that department! They're probably one of my favorite features (except when they fall in my eyes, and then I curse them!).

Dad's blue color is a product of several light-colored irises back through his family lines of blue and grey shades. Here's a selection of what he inherited:

(Left to Right) Harry Foltz, Myrtle (Mills) Foltz, George LeeRoy Foltz, Alpharetta (Scheetz) Mills

However, despite the pretty color that we get to gaze upon when we peer into his eyes, from his perspective, things look a tad murkier. That's because he is red-green color blind! Sadly for him, there is a spectrum of colors he just can't experience the way the rest of us do. And he adopted that from his mom, which is super rare. 

According to the National Eye Institute, only about 1 in 200 women have color blindness, versus 1 in 12 men. The gene mutation that causes color blindness is passed down on the X-chromosome. For his mom to have been color blind, her father would have been color blind and her mother was at least a carrier of the gene mutation, if not also color blind.

My dad and his brother then inherited that X-chromosomal defect from his mom. That means I am now a carrier of that gene, because I've adopted one X-chromosome from him and one X-chromosome from my mom (same with my sister). If my mom had also had the mutation, then my sister and I would both be color blind. As it is, I do tend to fall short on some of enChroma's color blind tests in the green zone. Here is an example of my results:

I've noticed if I look upon a grassy knoll with one of my eyes covered and then switch, I do lose some of the different shades of green when viewing out of my right eye, which is interesting as that is the same eye with the stigmatism and lazy lid I got from my dad. So perhaps, he forgot to give me some rods and cones in that eye as well, the M-cone specifically!

For the record, though, I did see that the dress was blue and black! ;) By the way, if color theory is an intriguing topic for you, check out this article centered around the color blue and how it may be a relatively modern concept.

Speaking of modern, nothing says more about our society today than influencers, and as it turns out, we have one in my mom's family tree, my 2nd cousin 1x removed, Jessica (Pope) Shulemson! And it's all thanks to a physical attribute she may have inherited from her father.

Jessica was born with a webbed toe that doctors wouldn't cut apart. Her dad had one also, but not as deep. Fortunately, it's never impaired her walking. And at one point, at the height of the Pinterest phenomenon in the 2010s, her little feet went viral due to a very clever tattoo!

Photo courtesy of cousin Jessica (Pope) Shulemson

Jess reasoned that, "growing up in the '90s and not wearing toe socks can crush a girl!" So, she found a way to cover up her insecurity and make it funny. Now, she finds it to be the perfect conversation starter. And, I have to agree! I am absolutely obsessed with her body art, and that's coming from someone who hasn't had any ink done personally. Maybe one day I'll come up with something "a cut above". (Puns are always allowed in this blog). For now, Jessica wins the cousin tattoo contest, and can stand proud and accepting of her 9 and a half toes.

Now for some other cousin inheritance patterns in my mom's tree. One of our branches in the Dean family includes individuals who are deaf and some, hard of hearing. My maternal grandmother had six siblings, which included one sister (Mary Ruth) born extremely hard of hearing and one brother (Raymond Edward) born deaf. These were my great aunt and great uncle. They of course went on to start families of their own, and in some cases, their offspring (my cousins) were born deaf, as well.

(Left to Right) Mary Ruth Dean, Raymond Dean, Eloise (Hickle) Dean

Interestingly, there are many cases of hearing loss inherited by different patterns, including autosomal recessive, autosomal dominant, and mitochondrial (that's another X-chromosome mutation like the color blindness gene I mentioned above). 

I've inquired with my family who they think Mary Ruth and Raymond inherited their deafness from, and the consensus is, it probably was passed down from their father, Chester Joseph Dean, who they learned had hearing loss in one ear. I haven't heard any mention of any of their grandparents being deaf or suffering severe hearing loss, but it may just not have been talked about.

Raymond Dean in center

In fact, being the first deaf folk in the family, their dad at first hesitated to send them away to the School for the Deaf in Romney, West Virginia. He wanted to keep them close to the family. But eventually he decided it was the best thing for them. Their sibling, my great aunt Frances (who was fairly hard of hearing, later on in life), recalls Raymond heading out to Romney at the age of 12 and Mary Ruth around the age of 7, and both attending through at least the 8th grade.

They'd board at the school year-round, because it was 4-5 hours from their house, and they'd return in the summer. Frances also mentioned Raymond being grandma's favorite child and Mary Ruth being grandpa's favorite child, so they were allowed to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Dixon over the summer and not have to work around the house like their siblings. Sometimes being deaf had its perks! Plus, they became fluent in a whole other language, ASL.

While being deaf may not technically be a visible trait, it's certainly a physical one that can somehow be passed down along the ancestral line. I've tried searching for clues further up the tree that may indicate an ancestor further back who had trouble hearing, but so far no luck. I'd be curious to learn what introduced the characteristic in this branch of the tree, or if it indeed began with Chester.

When looking further back into my father's tree, it's easy to spot some physical resemblances that standout in the Hinman line.

(Left to Right) Frank Hinman and Orlin Oliver Hinman

Here are my dad's 2nd and 3rd great grandfathers, Frank and Orlin Hinman. It's not difficult to first notice the scraggly-looking beards each is sporting. They both appear to have the same hair consistency coming off the chin, despite the elder's graying more (though I'm sure that's what Frank's looked like down the line as well). Even their hairline and parts are similar. 

Both men also had those extremely light-colored eyes that ran up my dad's tree. In their case, they were most likely blue, as that was the reported color on two of Orlin's grandsons' World War draft registrations (one being Frank's son, Orlin, named for his grandfather).

Also, father and son happen to show off the same recessive trait. They both had attached earlobes! That is when the bottom of the ear connects fully to the head, versus having a slight dangling of the lower lobe that then swings upward in its attachment to the side of the face (also referred to as 'free'). Frank went on to marry Maggie Miller, who had free earlobes (the dominant trait), but surprisingly their daughter, my dad's grandmother Ethel, was still born with the recessive trait, attached earlobes. 

Ethel (Hinman) Eggenberger

Her siblings' lobes look almost somewhere in the realm of in-between being free and attached. Ethel's children's lobes appear to be free, as best I can tell. So eventually the trait died out.

Finally, the Hinmans' facial expressions are quite striking. Both father and son appear just a tad in shock (Frank more so), but almost like that "deer in the headlights" look. Do you think that was just as they sat to be photographed? Or did they wander the world in a state of awe? It's fun to think about what their demeanor might have been on the regular.

From a father and son...to mothers and daughters! Below is a photo of my mom (on the left) and sister (on the right) when they were about the same age. 

I always grew up hearing I looked so much like my mom, but my sister really got the striking similarities. Their smiles were both ALL teeth! But, as you can see, their facial shape was nearly identical, too, and they even happened to have the same haircuts. There are some youngster photos of my mom that I could swear are actually my sister!

And how about my aunt and grandmother? Can you even tell which of the photos below are mother and daughter? Aside from the type of dress, I think it's hard to make out. My aunt Sandra is on the left in 1948 and my paternal grandmother Alta is on the right, circa 1918.

It's funny they even posed the same. My aunt inherited her mother's very dark and curly hair. What a feature! Plus, the curves of their faces also are so similar like my mom and sister's are. It's pretty uncanny!

While there's seemingly no widow's peaks or cleft chins in sight, there are still many physical characteristics that are interesting to study in my ancestral lines! Discovering their origins is all just part of the fun. Maybe someone can fess up to leaving me pigeon-toed and having to wear braces on my feet while I slept when younger! 

Which original ancestor was to blame for that? Okay, sure, it's not necessarily an inherited trait. That problem originated in the womb! Thanks, mom.... :)