Newton's Law With A Side of DNA

This weeks Spin Cycle subject is Apple Trees as in family tree.  There are some great stories from several women.  Most of these women and the way they see the genes of families in their children.  Some recount stories of aunts who have acknowledged the connections.  Pop on over to enjoy the other stories.

My three sisters and I are the culmination of Rogers, Jones, Chandler and Mantooth genes.   Then we four sisters mixed these genes with other strings of DNA.  That is good, cross pollination. 

My sisters and I celebrating Christmas, 2010, by showing team alliances.  I am considered a traitor as a Cardinal fan.

Now in the above picture of my siblings and me there are what we always called the Chandler eyes.  Here is my Grandma Chandler (Mary Margaret Mantooth).  Looks like those may be Mantooth eyes.

Grandma Chandler in her wedding attire, circa 1917.

How many families have the redhead picture made at the family reunions?  That does come from our Granddaddy Chandler, himself a redhead.

Granddaddy Chandler's mom was half Irish.

Early 1990's Chandler descendant redhead picture.

My red is now mostly grey.

So my mom's side of the family gene pool gave us distinctive eyes and red hair.  Momma had brown hair but definitely the eyes.

Momma, Suzie, Margaret and Daddy, circa 1942.  Bunch of hotties and cuties!

As with many families our tree is not apple but some sort of nut tree.  My father's antics have been highlighted a time or two on my blog.  As I looked for a couple of stories, I realized I had not blogged on some of my favorites.  They will come at some point.  Let's just say one aunt thought nookie was a new flavor of ice cream like tuttie fruitie!  And both aunts 'helped' me with a blind date.

An incident that occured while visiting with my second cousin is a great example of family mutual habilities (habits and abilities put together).
Danielle is my aunt's granddaughter so she is the "next" generation after me.  She, her husband, Gene and I were sitting at my sister's table just visiting.  At one point Gene shook his head, stopped the conversation between Danielle and I.  "Janice, you are changing subjects.  Danielle is not going to understand anything."  Danielle looked surprised and noted she had followed every thing I had said.  Seems we both share the Attention Deficit gene that causes subject jumping.  Oddly enough, our husbands just looked at each other and shook their heads at the same time.  They are not related, just caught in the same Rogers' descendant web!

And the best thing is not just that I see traits in my sisters and my grandsons but the genes are in cousins, nieces, nephews and and into the great greats.  My grandsons have looks that can be traced to my dad's mom who died when he was only four.  Middle grandson showed me the crazy thing he could do with his thumb.  When I did the same thing, it freaked out my son.  Seem he never realized his old mom was double jointed like Granny Mary and now Middle Grandson.

I love heritage of looks from generation to generation.  There are mannerisms, accents and actions that can be recalled in the flash of an eye.  What joy to reconnect with a departed loved one by simply watching a nephew walk into a room and see one's Dad in the walk and facial expression.  Thanks, Gretchen for suggesting we look for all the apples or nuts in our families.