Genealogist Has a Novel Idea

Karen Harrington's interest in genealogy led her to write Janeology—a novel that comes with its own pedigree chart.

Jane, a loving mother of two, has drowned her toddler son and is charged with his murder in this powerful examination of love, loss, and family legacy. When a prosecutor decides Jane's husband Tom is partially to blame for the death and charges him with "failure to protect," Tom's attorney proposes a radical defense. He plans to create reasonable doubt about his client's alleged guilt by showing that Jane's genealogy is the cause of her violence, and that she inherited her latent violence in the same way she might inherit a talent for music or a predisposition to disease. He argues that no one could predict or prevent the tragedy, and that Tom cannot be held responsible.

With the help of a woman gifted with the power of retrocognition—the ability to see past events through objects once owned by the deceased—the defense theory of dark biology takes form. An unforgettable journey through the troubled minds and souls of eight of Jane's ancestors (named below), spanning decades and continents, this debut novel deftly illustrates the ways nature and nurture weave the fabric of one woman's life, and renders a portrait of one man left in its tragic wake.

I'm Descended From a Blue-Eyed Mutant

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen say that all blue-eyed people—including me and every member of my immediate family—descend from a common ancestor, who lived six- to ten-thousand years ago.

“Originally, we all had brown eyes”, said Professor Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. “But a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a 'switch', which literally 'turned off' the ability to produce brown eyes”.

Variation in the colour of the eyes from brown to green can all be explained by the amount of melanin in the iris, but blue-eyed individuals only have a small degree of variation in the amount of melanin in their eyes. “From this we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor,” says Professor Eiberg. “They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA.” [Link]

Phoenicians and Freckles

Geneticist Pierre Zalloua has found traces of Phoenician DNA in Lebanon's Muslim and Christian communities. But not in Joseph Tabat.

"I was always intrigued as to why I look different to the rest of the guys in high school," he said. "I'm a red-head with freckles." Tabat's DNA matched types found in France and Spain, perhaps a sign that one of his ancestors was a European who arrived in the Middle East during the Crusades. [Link]

Note that having one Western European ancestor 1,000 years ago does not cause red hair and freckles. If it did, redheads wouldn't be going extinct.

Redheads a Dying Breed

Remember the story that circulated a few years ago about blondes becoming extinct? That one turned out to be false, but a new one says redheads are an endangered species.

According to genetic scientists redheads are becoming rarer and could be extinct in 100 years.

The current National Geographic magazine reports that less than 2 per cent of the world's population has natural red hair - created by a mutation in northern Europe thousand of years ago.

Global intermingling, which broadens the availability of possible partners, has reduced the chances of redheads meeting and so producing little redheads of their own. [Link]

[Thanks, Nancy!]

This Little Piggy Is Genealogically Significant

Someone inquired at GenForum a few years ago about his grandmother's toes.

It has to be a feature she received through one of her parents George Washington Hockley or Sadie Mae Clemens. The feature is that the 2nd toe (beside her big toe) on both feet was smaller than both the big toe and the 3rd toe. I know that this is an odd thing to write about in a genealogy forum, but it has caused several in my family to become curious. We are trying to determine if it is a Hockley Trait or a Clemens trait. [Link]

Not an odd question at all. Inherited physical traits offered a peek into the genes back before DNA testing was possible, and can still offer clues to ancestry. Too bad relative toe lengths aren't noted on birth, marriage or death certificates.

BTW, if your second toe is longer than your big toe, you have something in common with the Statue of Liberty (pdf).

Her Kinfolks Were All Thumbs

Novelist Lisa Alther suspects that her family concealed its Melungeon heritage back when multiracial ancestry was frowned upon. While researching her memoir, Kinfolks: Falling off the Family Tree, she was able to confirm some facts about the bogeymen of her youth.

While growing up, she heard from a baby-sitter that Melungeons sported six fingers on each hand, all the better to "grab mean little children and carry them off to their caves in the cliffs outside of town."

This mythology was not entirely outlandish. As an adult, Alther's search led to Brent Kennedy, a respected Melungeon scholar and newfound cousin, in that they share the same grandmother's grandmother. He showed her the scars where his extra thumb on each hand had been removed. [Link]

McCoys Are Born Ornery

The long-running feud between the Hatfields and McCoys may have been due in part to a medical condition passed down in one of the families.

Dozens of McCoy descendants apparently have the disease, which causes high blood pressure, racing hearts, severe headaches and too much adrenaline and other "fight or flight" stress hormones.

No one blames the whole feud on this, but doctors say it could help explain some of the clan's notorious behavior.

Affected family members have long been known to be combative, even with their kin. [Rita] Reynolds recalled her grandfather, "Smallwood" McCoy.

"When he would come to visit, everyone would run and hide. They acted like they were scared to death of him. He had a really bad temper," she said. [Link]

Shivery Spines Run in the Family

The remains of a woman were found in an abandoned well in Saskatchewan last summer. Jo Ann Manton believes they are those of her great-grandmother, Harriet (Dyson) Calvert.

For many years, one of Manton's aunts has researched the family history and, in particular, Calvert's disappearance in the early 1900s. Manton was visiting her aunt in Calgary last summer when the discovery became national news.

"It just sent shivers up both of our spines," said Manton. "It was a very intuitive feeling. That's fairly strong in our family." [Link]

Genes Mean He Leans to the Left

Los Angeles Angels outfielder Vladimir Guerrero has an inherited condition that makes him run in circles counterclockwise. Fortunately, he found a job that pays him for doing this.

"I have a family history where there is one leg proven that is longer than the other," Guerrero said, adding that it's the right one in his case. "So when I hobble, it's not my knee. My mom's side of the family, we have a leg longer than the other. So it looks like I'm hobbling, but I'm not. But my knee is fine." [Link]

Inbreeding Can Be Healthy

Residents of the tiny town of Stoccareddo, Italy, eat all the bad stuff that doctors warn us about. But they rarely develop heart disease or diabetes, and often live into their 90s. What's their secret?

While at first glance nothing seems to be unusual about the town, a closer look reveals almost everyone is related and shares the same last name of Bau (pronounced Bow-ooh). According to Amerigo Bau, the unofficial town historian, the first Bau family arrived in Stoccareddo from Denmark about 800 years ago and ever since, Baus have been marrying Baus.

"It happened because the town was in the mountains," explains Amerigo Bau. "It was isolated, and so the likelihood of marrying another Bau was quite strong."

Most Baus tended to marry more distant relatives and not first cousins, which can cause genetic defects. [Link]

Digging for a Dimple

The remains of Col. Joseph Bridger have been exhumed from beneath a Virginia church and sent to the Smithsonian for analysis. And it's all because Jean Birdsong Tomes, president of the Bridger Family Association, wanted a look at the guy.

Tomes, a direct descendant who lives in North Carolina, initiated the move to exhume Bridger’s body less than a year ago. There was never a portrait of Bridger, or, if so, it was destroyed in a fire that burned his plantation. At an association meeting, she suggested exhuming the bones at St. Luke’s Church because she longed to see what her ancestor looked like, she said. A facial reconstruction is possible.

“I wonder if he had a dimple in his chin?” asked Merry Outlaw, another descendant, fingering her own cleft chin. [Link]

Who Needs DNA When You Have Crooked Toes?

Deborah Robinson didn't need science to prove that Lisa Files was the daughter she'd given birth to four decades ago.

Robinson asked Files to describe herself, and was flabbergasted to learn about her daughter's resemblance to herself, from her dark eyes to her crooked baby toes, which all her daughters inherited.

“In a 10-minute conversation, from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, God confirmed that she is my baby,” Robinson said, adding that as far as she's concerned, DNA stands for “Don't Need Any.” [Link]

Their Forebears' Forelocks

The Springer family of Hettinger, North Dakota, has inherited a curious genetic trait. A large proportion of them are born with a white patch of hair on their foreheads. Known as piebaldism, it's a dominant trait found in every generation of the family.

The white lock gene traveled from England with the Stowell family. Three of the Stowell family girls married three of the Springer family boys way back in the late 1800s and early 1900s when it was fairly common for groups of brothers to marry groups of sisters. The three Springer-Stowell unions were prolific, with the brothers, wives and their 17 children settling in North Dakota, Minnesota and Colorado.

Kaye McIntyre said she was amazed when she attended a Springer family reunion in Minnesota a few years back.

"I could not get over all the white locks," she said. "Wherever I looked, I kept seeing my own children." [Link]

A Politician's Smirky Past

Peter Costello, Australia's treasurer since 1996, is the great-great-grandson of Patrick Costello, a 19th-century politician from Melbourne convicted of rigging an election. Though Peter is hesitant to talk about it, they share at least two things in common: a surname and a smirk.

"That's gorgeous!" says Professor Agnes Bankier, head of Genetic Health Services Victoria, when asked about the persistence of the smirk. Yet she can't conclusively say that it is purely a genetic quirk.

Peter's brother Tim has admitted that he too inherited the self-satisfied expression.

Speaking on the telephone from Los Angeles, he revealed that his father did not smirk. Adding to the enigma of the expression, Tim said he had it when he was young, while Peter developed it over time.

"In fact, when I was a young man, I did look like that, so I think it was a genetic trait," he said. "When I was about 20, there are pictures of me with that smirk. The smirk came out in the early days with me and later days with Peter, so DNA is cruel." [Link]