Is it possible to take after a grandparent?

[ChocChipOwl]

I know you inherit your genes from your parents of course. But how much if your personality / genetic make up comes from your grandparents?

I ask because my grandad had a rather distinct personality and I'm very like him in a lot of ways so it made me wonder

Yes definitely, some traits show up strongly. We're all approx 25% of each grandparent I think.

I don't know how much of it comes from them, but my daughter is the spit, both physically and in character and skills, of her great aunt - her grandma's sister

Of course it is.

My son is like a miniature version of my dad, it's almost disturbing.
One thing that was very strange is we went overseas to meet some of my dads cousins, they had never met each other before. They were so similar personality wise, even down to their sense of humour. Genes are weird!

I am almost exactly like my grandmother except she was born in 1923 and me in the '70s which gives me a lot more life choices (which she always encouraged me to take)

Of course you share a large percentage of your DNA. I’m actually very like the grandmother I wasn’t as close to and didn’t spent much time with. Definitely nature over nurture in my case.

Yes, I'm a lot like my grandmother. My mother is a rogue puritan in the family, I got the cheek and love of swearing from nan.

Dd2 is basically my mother reincarnated in looks and personality. In her youth she was a beauty and a party girl - Dh is struggling. My 70 something mother finds it quite funny

I was very wrinkly, toothless and bald when I was born. Just like my grandfather.

I look almost the spitting image of my dads mum. I don't really resemble either parent.

Definitely.

My ds is very like my late df who he didn't even spend much time with, and I look more like my dm. He has his colouring, features, mannerisms, habits and, most disturbingly, his smell

Dd is very tall and slim. This is definitely from my side of the family, but not me. It's my grandad/uncle/mum's cousin/brother all of whom were distinctive enough for me to recognise mum's cousin having seen him once twenty years previously in a town neither of us would normally be in. As soon as I saw him walking towards me I knew he had to be a relative.

I think so, my dad was an avid book reader, I remember him spending time enjoying a book with his legs over the side of the sofa. My eldest also loves to read so much and that’s somehow her preferred position too, they’ve never met.

I've been told all my life that I'm my great- grandmother's image in looks and character. We have one photo of her, and yes we could almost be twins. Can't comment on the character as I never met her, but family stories say she was a formidable and fiery Italian woman. I'm not Italian, but....

My grandfather used to say things 'skip a generation'

Yes you definitely can, it's all about the way the traits are passed down between generations. It is totally random how this happens but it does

Yes, I think I am much more like my grandmother than I am my mother. Grandmother (still alive at 96) was always active, walked or cycled every day until she was in her 80’s, she rarely sat still when we were younger. I am very much like her, I just hope I live as long and remain healthy like she has. I don’t feel I am like my mother at all and as I have got older I have felt a lot less like her.

its not correct to say that you’re 25% of each grandparent. Your parents inherit 50% from each parent. You then get 50% from each of your parent. That’s random though, so technically the dna you get from your parent could have all come from one of their parents and none from the other! It’s very unlikely to be equally split

It’s further complicated by some traits being recessive and some dominant. Which can effectively lead to the ‘skip a generation’ thing

Dd3 is startlingly like my dhs mum. We have recently found a picture of her at 15, in 1940. Same height, frame, smile everything!

Each of my kids is like mine and their dad’s siblings, more than us. DS is the double of his uncle, in looks and character, DD is just like her aunt. Genes are funny things.

It's a definite thing, and I think goes beyond grandparents to wider family!

My DS is very similar physically to my dad and has a lot of his mannerisms. It can be quite spooky sometimes. The mannerisms aren't learned behaviour as they only see each other for a few days a year. He's not like me or DH.

My dd23 looks almost identical to photos of my mum at the same age. I've got two photos in particular one of my dd at 2 in 2000 and one of my mum taken in 1948 in almost the same pose and it's really uncanny. Another photo when they were both 16 in 2014 and 1962.
My dd28 doesn't look like her but has a lot of the mannerisms and very similar tastes to my grandmother (who died when she was one so has no memory of her). I really double take sometimes.