Throw Out the Punnet Square!!!

Who wants to get squirmy?  Who wants to go back to eighth grade in sex-ed?  Remember when the teacher gave out free condoms to everyone!  Because today we're going to talk about the punnet square and what goes into making a baby.

This is baby Celeste on her two month birthday.  She already has the trademark long eyelashes and looks like a mixture of her sisters Claire and Charlotte.  She is still pretty bald.  My daughter Charlotte had dark black hair and eyebrows up until she was six months old and then all of her hair fell out (pretty scary) and it grew in blonde, so weird how genetics work.  There was an article in a Martha Stewart Baby issue years ago about genetics and where we really get them from.  I've gone ahead and put the whole thing up for you.  Really, the baby makin' isn't just between two people, it is pretty much all of the ancestors too.

 Did anybody catch the PBS special on Martha Stewart and her ancestry?  They came right here  to research her lines.  She had a Sigrid (my mom) and Tekla (my sister) in the family just like me.  We actually get our genetics from our grandparent's, and they get theirs from their grandparent's and so forth.  The most pure genetic groups are found in Great Britain and the Nordic nations.  When I say "pure" I mean their blood has not been mixed with any other nations.  Not only that, their ancestry has stayed in the same area for thousands of years.  These European nations can be traced back to one tribe after the Ice age of 50-to 100 people, whom they believe much of northern Europe descends from.  This group continues to track such a genetic history.  It is especially important for medical research.  In fact the most famous story concerning such orgins is of the Cheddar Man.  He was a direct descendant of a skull 13,000 years old living only half a mile away.  I myself am 25% pure British blood and I believe a little more than that in pure Swedish blood.  My husband has fairly fresh off the boat German blood too.  I do have a red tint to my hair.  This I owe to such ancestry.  Scientists have now uncovered the reason why there are more gingers and blondes in the northern European nations.  My ancestors were so isolated that the imprint was there for thousands upon thousands of years.  Which is why you often get people who have different colored hair than their parent's if they have that isolated blood imprint.  You can read the article right here.

The royal houses of Europe have mixed blood themselves too.  The House of Bernadotte is perhaps the most famous example.  In fact the late Queen Victoria is descendant from this line, a line of the shopkeeper's daughter.  Napoleon's brother married Josephine's daughter and Josephine herself had nobility blood.  The current crown princess Victoria of Sweden pays tribute to such an era with the middle name Desiree.  You see what used to happen is the royal houses of Europe would have disputes over who should rule on the throne.  Therefore, they would agree to invite a neutral party until it was sorted out.  Portugal is the most famous nation for doing this.  Desiree was married to Bernadotte who was a general of Napoleon and was invited to come take over the Swedish throne.

 

It has often been noted that the late and gifted Canadian pianist Glenn Gould had a cousin who two times removed was also gifted musically.  We know that talent, especially musical, naturally comes down through the genetic line.  Recently we heard about the discovery of Richard III's bones.  He is considered the last of the Plantagenet kings.  I am descendant from this house but it stops at Edward III and I am also related to the Neville's. 

I especially like to see the descendant's of people who have had an impact on our lives, in particular those of past American president's.  The article from Marie Claire below is thoroughly enjoyable.

I can totally see Jefferson in Jacqueline.  A lot of Nixon lays in the face of Jennie.  In Rachel I see the similar cheekbone structure of Andrew Jackson.  But my!  Oh my!  How the politics have switched.  I wonder what their ancestors would say.

Margaret Hoover we see a lot of in the news, I recognize Hoover's apple cheeks in her.  She has better hair than her great-grandfather.  James Monroe and Sarah Cohen have the same elongated cheekbone make-up.  I must confess that I see no real physical resemblance between Rutherford and Elizabeth.  Perhaps the next generation will produce a spitting image.

Old Post Gazette

This man is a distant cousin of president Abraham Lincoln.  The amazing thing is that this man looks more like Lincoln 141 years later than Lincoln's own son's looked like him!  Proof again that we are actually made-up of people all the way down our ancestral line.  You know what they say:  "Don't come a knockin' if the ancestors are a rockin'."  I'm sorry, I really am.  Now what ancestor can I blame my smart Alec sense of humour on?  Apparently, the Pope got so upset about my last joke he quit.  I should stop now.  Anyways, this post is about to become a cooking post, stay tuned.