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Is she my sister or not?

(101 Posts)
Celeste21 Thu 29-Aug-19 10:40:49

Can a blue eyed father and hazel eyed mother produce children with four different eye colours? I have for years thought my “ sister “ is not a full sibling. My eldest brother has green eyes, I and another brother have blue. And a third brother has hazel then along comes the sister with dark almost black eyes plus slightly darker skin tone and very wavy dark hair when the rest of us are fairer with straight hair. One of my first memories is my mother telling every visitor “ you wouldn’t think they were sisters would you” ( my hair was platinum blonde until I was about five ), almost as if she were preempting awkward questions. My family are estranged so I can’t really talk to anyone about this. Please tell me what you think.

polyester57 Thu 29-Aug-19 10:53:33

My understanding is that two brown-eyed parents can have a blue-eyed child, but not the other way round. I wouldn´t dwell on this too much if I were you. If your sister is OK with it, then let sleeping dogs lie. My sister-in-law got badly told off when she mentioned the fact to a blue-eyed couple with a brown-eyed child.

Nanny27 Thu 29-Aug-19 11:03:10

My view is that if she has grown up in your family and you love her then she is your sister. I wouldn't try to delve too deeply and risk opening a can of worms. That could end so badly for everyone.

paddyann Thu 29-Aug-19 11:07:54

my daughter has a brown eyed and blue eyed and a green eyed child.She has hazel eyes and her husband has grey eyes ,the brown eyed child has a different skin tone an dtans very easily but apart from that she's her fathers image .

rockgran Thu 29-Aug-19 11:31:38

I would let things be. I believe the eye colour thing is far more complicated than we think. Throwback genes can emerge after several generations giving unexpected skin and eye colour. Why cause unnecessary grief?

morethan2 Thu 29-Aug-19 11:36:11

I have one olive skinned brown eyed son, one green eyed medium skinned daughter, one very blonde very light blue eyed easily burnt son. All to the same man. The boys look nothing like each other but put my daughter in the middle and you can see the similarities. We’re a great mixture of genes. I think it’s amazing what our gene pool throws up and seeing it in my grandchildren is a joy. So your sister is your sister no matter how different she looks.

Callistemon Thu 29-Aug-19 11:40:23

Yes it is possible.

And it is possible, but rare, for two blue eyed parents to have a brown eyed child.

Callistemon Thu 29-Aug-19 11:44:43

polyester if each blue-eyed parent carries the dominant brown-eyed gene then it can produce a brown eyed child.

fizzers Thu 29-Aug-19 11:49:14

both my parents had brown eyes, I have green and my sister has brown, so anything is possible

annodomini Thu 29-Aug-19 11:54:10

My parents, brown eyed father, blue eyed mother, had one blue eyed daughter - me - one brown eyed daughter and finally a grey eyed one. Celtic and Anglo-Saxon genes well represented!

EllanVannin Thu 29-Aug-19 11:56:39

Yes, anything is possible. Among my GGC of which there are 7 from the same father, there is a flaxen-haired blue-eyed female and also in the mix is a boy who looks European ! Tanned skin and green eyes. Both parents are fair-skinned and fair-haired. Others range from light brown hair and one is a sandy blonde with curls ( both parents have straight hair )

EllanVannin Thu 29-Aug-19 11:58:25

The flaxen haired girl is a twin and looks nothing like her brother.

GillT57 Thu 29-Aug-19 12:07:26

I went to school with twins who didn't even look like the same nationality/race! The boy was a big blonde, fair skinned lad, looked scandinavian, and his twin sister was petite, dark, with straight black hair and looked mixed race Asian. Nobody believed they were siblings let alone twins. I have a blue eyed fair skinned daughter with straight mid brown hair and a brown eyed, dark son with curly hair, but you can see the likeness in the shape of their features. I have blue eyes, DH brown/hazel.

SalsaQueen Thu 29-Aug-19 12:12:51

I've got hazel eyes, my husband has got blue. We've got a son with blue eyes, a son with brown.

My Dad had brown eys, Mum had blue. 2 of my brothers had bworn eyes, 1 had blue, and, as I say, mine are hazel.

In answer to your question, Yes, there can be a few variations in the family, all with the same parents.

sodapop Thu 29-Aug-19 12:18:54

So many variations possible Celeste21 As others have said, leave this one alone there is nothing to be gained by pursuing it but maybe a lot to lose. I'm not sure why you are so concerned about this.

dragonfly46 Thu 29-Aug-19 12:19:28

My DH has hazel eyes and mine are blue - both our children have really brown eyes. I can assure you they both belong to both of us.

watermeadow Thu 29-Aug-19 12:29:19

Non identical twins are no more alike than any other siblings. My twin brothers were totally different in every way but I looked very like one of them.
People are mostly mongrels, as different as a litter of mixed-breed puppies.

GillT57 Thu 29-Aug-19 12:34:28

Yes I know watermeadow but this particular set of twins looked very different!

M0nica Thu 29-Aug-19 12:54:39

Eye colour like hair colour can be a real throwback. DGD has dark brown eyes like her mother. DGS has deep grey eyes like his aunt and great grandmother. I have Hazel eyes the product of ablue and grey eyed parent -

Now here is a warning story for the OP and others. During Apartheid in South Africa a dark skinned and dark eyed child was born to a white family. It was shown that she was the child of both known parents. No question of any other parent. It was found that some way back in the ancestry of one or both parents there had been a cross race marriage that several generations later produced this child.

I believe that she was taken away from her true parents and fostered/adopted into what the authorities thought was a more appropriate racial group.

So OP, stop indulging in these fantasies. The genes that produced your sister may be a throwback to the genes of grandparents or their parents, on either side of the family.

Perhaps you are the odd one out, despite looking like everybody else.

Luckygirl Thu 29-Aug-19 14:06:42

My Dad was fair-haired and skinned with blue eyes; Mum had pale freckly skin, but brown eyes and brown hair. All 3 of us offspring have very dark skin (think mediterranean), brown eyes and dark brown hair.

When my brother was born my grandmother (mum's MIL) took one look at him and said "He is not one of ours!" - so that went down well with Mum! - they never got in after that.

However my Mum's Mum was dark-skinned with flat nose and curly black hair. So that is where it comes from - I would love to do our DNA and find out where it all comes from.

EllanVannin Thu 29-Aug-19 14:06:50

We're all Heinz 57's whether you like it or not.

grandtanteJE65 Thu 29-Aug-19 14:24:19

I think modern genetics would state that the parents you mention could well have children with totally differing eye and hair colour.

It is being said that genetic traits can be inherited from our great-great grandparents. Whether this is true or not, I cannot say, not being a geneticist.

GagaJo Thu 29-Aug-19 14:28:12

I read an article about this REALLY recently. The older schools of genetics always thought that 2 blue eyed parents couldn't have a brown eyed baby. They called this the recessive gene.

HOWEVER, they have recently discovered that this isn't true and that parents can have children with any eye colour. Your family's situation in fact. I'll have a look for the article. But can't remember where I read it so...

MiniMoon Thu 29-Aug-19 14:31:00

My Dad had black hair and brown eyes. My Mum had light ginger hair and grey/blue eyes. My younger sister and I had brown hair and hazel eyes, my middle sister had striking red/Auburn hair and dark brown eyes. Genetics is fascinating, but complex. A DNA test would be the only way to find out your family connections for sure.

NanaandGrampy Thu 29-Aug-19 15:00:22

Does it matter Celeste?

If she acts like your sister, if she feels like your sister , if YOU love her like a sister then she’s your sister.

Everything else is irrelevant .