Did you marry your long lost cousin?

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Dec 7, 2021
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An interesting article in the January 2023 Readers Digest (yea, who that was still around) on eye color distribution around the world and heredity. Contained in it is was this interesting point given as a fact: “Everyone with blue eyes actually shares one common ancestor. The first-ever pair of baby blues was a genetic fluke that was passed on—and on and on.”

So looked at another way, that means that if you and your spouse both have blue eyes, well introduce yourself tonight at the dinner table to your long lost cousin. 😳

I’ve a hunch that some of the folks here have parents who had blue eyes, just sayin…
 
My mom has green eyes, my dad and my 2 siblings have blue, I somehow managed to have hazel eyes. My wife has blue eyes, as do my 4 sons and thus I remain the anomaly.
 
Contained in it is was this interesting point given as a fact: “Everyone with blue eyes actually shares one common ancestor. The first-ever pair of baby blues was a genetic fluke that was passed on—and on and on.”
This gives me pause: it stated something as a fact, but did it have supporting data? or just state it as fact, with the assumption that everyone reading the article would accept it as fact?

No way for this blue random mutation could not have happened multiple times, in multiple populations? I find this hard to believe that all blue eyes trace back to a proverbial Adam (or Eve for the matter).
 
My Ex and I both have bright blue eyes, and she was shady...ended up getting split due to her openly cheating on me. Anyways, I remember before our child was born explaining that our new baby girl was going to have blue eyes guaranteed as blue is a recessive trait, and if we both had blue eyes, our offspring must have blue eyes. I remember the look of horror and confusion on her face, but I didn't understand at the time. She was born with blue eyes, and still has them, but I'll never forget that conversation based on what I now know.
 
Even more fun is that my bride of 14 years and mother to our son is dark skinned, dark hair, brown eyes, and part indian, and our son has bright blue eyes :) She must carry the recessive somewhere in there!
 
If you really want your mind blown, look up "pedigree collapse".

If you go back enough generations, the number of people needed for every single one of your ancestors at that generation to be a different person...exceeds the population of the world at the time.
 
This gives me pause: it stated something as a fact, but did it have supporting data? or just state it as fact, with the assumption that everyone reading the article would accept it as fact?

No way for this blue random mutation could not have happened multiple times, in multiple populations? I find this hard to believe that all blue eyes trace back to a proverbial Adam (or Eve for the matter).
Exactly my thoughts as well.
 
This gives me pause: it stated something as a fact, but did it have supporting data? or just state it as fact, with the assumption that everyone reading the article would accept it as fact?

No way for this blue random mutation could not have happened multiple times, in multiple populations? I find this hard to believe that all blue eyes trace back to a proverbial Adam (or Eve for the matter).

All males and females also trace back to a proverbial adam and eve... and that's also just a small difference in DNA....
 
This gives me pause: it stated something as a fact, but did it have supporting data? or just state it as fact, with the assumption that everyone reading the article would accept it as fact?

No way for this blue random mutation could not have happened multiple times, in multiple populations? I find this hard to believe that all blue eyes trace back to a proverbial Adam (or Eve for the matter).
From an article in July 2018
Believing that blue eyes were likely the result of a genetic mutation, and thinking that the OCA2 gene determines the amount of melanin in our eyes, for some years researchers searched that gene for the mutation. But they couldn’t find it there.1

Then some researchers noted that two disorders that can result in albinism or reduced eye pigmentation, namely the Prader–Willi and Angelman syndromes, were caused by partial deletion not just of the OCA2 gene, but also another gene known as HERC2. Researchers subsequently discovered that the ‘blue eyes’ mutation is actually in the HERC2 gene, a gene that regulates the activity of OCA2.2 The mutated HERC2 gene strongly inhibits the OCA2 gene’s role in eye pigment production, drastically reducing the amount of melanin produced in the iris, resulting in blue eyes.

“Originally, we all had brown eyes,” explained lead researcher Professor Hans Eiberg of the University of Copenhagen, likening the HERC2 mutated gene’s effect on the OCA2 gene to that of “a ‘switch’, which literally ‘turned off’ the ability to produce brown eyes.”3 Given how little variation there is in blue eyes, the researchers conclude that all blue-eyed people have this same mutation, and share the same blue-eyed ancestor.

1 Williams, Z., and Orwig, J., All blue-eyed people have a single ancestor in common, businessinsider.com.au, 22 September 2017.
2 Eiberg, H., and 6 others, Blue eye color in humans may be caused by a perfectly associated founder mutation in a regulatory element located within the HERC2 gene inhibiting OCA2 expression, Human Genetics 123(2):177–187, 2008 | doi:10.1007/s00439-007-0460-x.
3 University of Copenhagen, Blue-eyed humans have a single, common ancestor, sciencedaily.com, 31 January 2008.
 
Here's something for y'all to figure out.

My cousins are my half siblings. There were no new marriages. How can this be?

Scott
Your Daddy’s DNA “donation“ and in-vitro fertilization of your mom’s sister would result in that. Kind of hard to put together but that would genetically result in your described situation.
 
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