To think this is a very high number of redheads for one family?

[HackerFucker22]

I'll start by saying it's my family and this is no slant on redheads BUT I did think the ginger gene was recessive?

My Mum has 11 grandchildren and x8 of them are redheads.

None of my mum's kids are actually redheads though.

My sister (darkhaired) and her redheaded partner have 5 kids - all ginger!
My brother (darkhaired) and his strawberry blonde partner have 4 kids - 3 of whom are redheads.
Myself and my partner are darkhaired, we have one darkhaired child and one bald one...

Just wondering if anyone else has a high number of redheads in their family?

It's unusual to have 100% of your kids being ginger if parents are darkhaired and redheaded right?

(my sister and SIL both refer to their children as ginger so it's not being used an offensive term here)

[MissMarpleCat]

I see Sighing beat me to it

[MaisieDotes]

WhatsGoingOn there has to be red on both sides to create a red haired DC. So your DH probably has no red on his side.

Your DCs however, even though they aren't red, have red hair on their side so if they have children with a partner that also has red on their side (even if not red haired themselves) then those children could be red haired.

I have red hair and my mum had dark brown hair and my father black. But my paternal grandfather was red and one of my maternal aunts is red.

[herethereandeverywhere]

We have a 'mystery' red gene in our family. I'm one of 12 cousins on my dads side. None of my aunts and uncles are redheads and only 1 cousin (who hasn't had kids of his own) is ginger. Yet, of my cousins kids 5 have red hair (that's almost half the next generation) despite none of the parents or grandparents involved being ginger!

[SmashleyHop]

It's an interesting blend in our family. My family is a mix of European decent and Native Americans (the closest is my great grandmother who's actual name was "Brings Grass Woman") My husband's family are all born and bred English with I guess Scandinavian decent. There are a few gingers dotted around here and there, more on DH side than mine- the most recent being our DD. She has this bright copper colored hair and big blue eyes. The combination is stunning and she gets a lot of attention for it especially when we take her to the states to visit.

My husband was convinced because of my back ground we wouldn't have any gingers... Our older two DS are both brown haired/blue eyed or brown hair/hazel eyes. Currently pregnant with 4th and final baby (another DD) which I really hope has hair like her sister. Although DD's hair/eye color is supposed to be the most rare- so I call her my majestic unicorn.

[MaisieDotes]

I call her my majestic unicorn

That's so sweet smashley

My mum used to say- "It might fade a bit when you're older so that people think it's brown".

[WhatsGoingOnEh]

Thank you, MaisieDotes for the explanation! :)

[WhatsGoingOnEh]

Oh, and answering a PP question, I have those blah eyes (sort of grey/blue/green). I will now refer to them as "stormy" as that sounds amazing!

My exH has blue eyes. DS1 has my eyes, DS2 has his Dad's.

[grumpysquash]

WhatsGoingOn there has to be red on both sides to create a red haired DC. So your DH probably has no red on his side.

You can get redheads with red on one side and blonde on the other (although this is less predictable!)

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

I have the grey/blue/green eyes too - I call them sea-coloured. :)

[grumpysquash]

....meant to add before posting last comment.....you can also get two redheads producing blonde children

[Lweji]

Statistics and genetics.

Your dark haired siblings clearly carry the recessive genes and have chosen red haired partners.

It may not be very common for all siblings to be ginger, if one parent is dark haired, but it's quite possible. It will happen in some families.

With one allele in a single gene responsible for the red colour, we'd expect 50% siblings with red hair, BUT each event is independent of the other, so whereas each child has 50% chance of coming out with red hair, it doesn't matter what the other siblings are like.

The genetics:
r - red (lower case to show recessiveness)
D - dark (capital to show dominance)

sister: Dr
husband: rr

possible combinations: Dr, Dr, rr, rr; in summary, Dr and rr 50-50

Probability of having five siblings all with red hair:
1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 =1/32, which is approximately 3%
The same probability for all siblings having dark hair.

For your brother, of having three ginger and one dark, regardless of order:
4x (1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2) = 4/16, which is 1/4 or 25% (not that rare)

If I have done the calculations right. :)

Maybe your sister's red haired eggs were the only ones to accept red haired sperm and the dark haired eggs didn't find a sperm they liked.

[Youarentkiddingme]

We are a large family on my maternal side. Mum is 1 of 7. 6 of them have between 2 and 4 children and then some of us have children.

We are all blonde and light brown haired.

One of my cousins is ginger! She really is an anomaly in our family. She calls herself Ging (like Bing) and even her nieces and nephews call her that. It's a very loving nickname and she's very proud of her dead straight ginger locks - they are beautiful.

But I agree in a dark haired family with red headed partners it's probably not that unusual with genetic make up. Probably feels more unusual if your out without the partners - all these dark haired adults and ginger children!

[TattyDevine]

Cor blimey Lweji

[TheStripyGruffalo]

I have light brown hair, DH has jet black hair, my parents both had dark brown hair, so does my sister but her husband has light brown hair. My great grandfather was ginger, my DCs are both ginger and my sister's children are ginger.

[Pico2]

But what you are actually saying is that two of your siblings have ginger children. It is then the size of their families that makes it so many children. If they'd had 2 children each it would be less remarkable.

[FuckTheseSixFishInParticular]

My parents both have dark hair, as do my mum's siblings (father was an only child).

My brother is a blue eyed blond, I am a green eyed mousy brown/blonde in strong sunlight/auburn in the winter or low light levels. (The colour change can be so obvious that people I haven't seen for a while often think I've dyed it!)

Of my cousins, one has the same hair as me, one is a full on red head, one is brown and two are dark haired.

Hurrah for genetic variability!

[Skiptonlass]

It's not quite as simple as 'red is recessive.' There are probably at least two pairs of genes that control human hair colour. The MCR 1 gene variant for the gingery red colour is recessive, but the actual hair colour will depend on the other version of the genes present. This will give rise to a varying mix of the two compounds which give human hair it's colour (eumelanin and pheomelanin.)

Eye colour again is complex. It's not a case of a single recessive gene at one locus creating blue eyes, for example (two blue eyed parents can have a brown eyed child.)

The genes for hair and eye colour are on the same chromosome and are physically close to each other (look it up on OMIM if you're so inclined, I think it's chr.15) the closer two genes are the less likely they are to recombine during reproduction - hence blue eyes often tend to go with red hair, but it's not set in stone.

it's a fascinating subject. Cat coat colour genetics is fun too.

Here's a nice link for the specific locus

www.omim.org/entry/227220

[Lweji]

It's not quite as simple as 'red is recessive.'

No, but for the purpose of the thread, I thought it was best if it was treated that way. :)

[Goshthatsspicy]

I was born with very red hair. It turned white blonde. At 44 l now have mid brown hair. Does anyone know why that happened?

[bakingaddict]

But you cant explain genetics of hair and eye colour by using simplified dominant recessive genes because you won't have factored in every possible permutation. For eye colour there are multiple sets of genes involved. Suddenly you've got somebody worrying their child can't possibly be theirs because of an oversimplified explanation.

[bakingaddict]

It's probably down the way your body is synthesizing and utilising melatonin as you age Gosh

[MsJamieFraser]

Not really, mum is 1 of 17 and all are red haired, all 56 grandkids have a various shade of red (I'm strawberry blond, dad was jet black) and we are also 22 second cousins and 2 third cousins (not that we class them as those) only 3 have dark hair, however they all have blue eyes.

[dodobookends]

Gosh I was born with black hair, then all my childhood it was blonde, then it turned mousey, and now I'm reddish brown (with grey bits).

[ragged]

Also interested in eye colour in your redheads.......Anyone with brown?

5 v. dark browns + 1 bright blue. We think the blue-eyed one is weird.

[TheStripyGruffalo]

One has dark brown eyes and the rest have blue/grey/green eyes.