# What makes you so sure your parents are your biological forebearers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 10, 2018, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630 "2018-07-10T01:26:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/41 "2018-07-10T20:51:46Z")
I look like my father. And my biological connection to my mother was established in the delivery room. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/42 "2018-07-10T20:54:56Z")
I’m inclined to believe the personal accounts and photographic evidence, personally. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mr.Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Bill)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/43 "2018-07-10T21:39:23Z")
I inherited my Dad’s baldness and his hyperactive sweat glands. Once, when I showed up with a newly grown Van Dyke beard, my father remarked how much I looked like his grandfather. Probably not a coincidence. From my mother’s side I inherited a lack of wisdom teeth. None of us kids ever had them come in. Just as well, with the very small jaws we also got. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/44 "2018-07-10T22:02:05Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > Well, I look a bit like my dad’s mom. My sister even more so. But besides that, both my parents have done the [ancestry.com](http://ancestry.com) DNA thing, and have encouraged me to do so as well. I’m not interested, but since they suggested it, I assume they have to think I wouldn’t find out one or both of them isn’t my biological parent. If they knew otherwise, that would be _cold_. My parents have stood by and watched me put 25+ years of research into the family tree. I certainly would have hoped that one of them would have tapped me on the shoulder and told me we needed to talk at some point if there had been anything to tell. I look like Mum and I am similar in personality to Dad - and I resemble his sister. I have my birth certificate. I’ve seen the birth announcement from the local paper, complete with the photograph of Mum and I. I didn’t have any doubts that I was their biological child. I did my DNA to further my genealogy research, and I got matches to both sides that quickly proved both parents were mine. Later they did their DNA and it was confirmed. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/45 "2018-07-10T22:41:54Z")
I’m not sure that a birth certificate showing the names of the people who raised you is proof that you’re not adopted. (Anyone who knows, please speak up.) From what I’ve read online, at adoption the original birth certificate is sealed, and an amended birth certificate is issued. I didn’t find information as to whether or not the amended birth certificate is always marked “amended”. I suspect it is not. When I got my name legally changed, I filed for an amended birth certificate in the state of my birth. The new BC is not marked “amended” and there’s no way to tell that it is not my original BC. ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/46 "2018-07-11T00:21:14Z")
It still weirds me out to see my dad’s sister in the bathroom mirror. I have my mom’s hands, with the freakishly short pinkies. ---
**Author:** ![K2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@K2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K2500)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/47 "2018-07-11T00:52:28Z")
It’s easy to be certain of mom. I also look similar to my dad and according to mom act just like him sometimes, so thats reassuring, then again maybe mom just had a type. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/48 "2018-07-11T02:16:36Z")
> [@ioioio](#): > > I’m not sure that a birth certificate showing the names of the people who raised you is proof that you’re not adopted. (Anyone who knows, please speak up.) From what I’ve read online, at adoption the original birth certificate is sealed, and an amended birth certificate is issued. I didn’t find information as to whether or not the amended birth certificate is always marked “amended”. I suspect it is not. > … Right, as of 30+ years ago in NYS, at least, birth certificates of adopted children were amended without any indication that there had ever been a previous one. Our daughter’s certificate has our names as her parents and you can’t tell it wasn’t the one originally issued. (The adoption was finalized ~8-10 months or so after her birth.) As far as I know this policy hasn’t changed, but I can only speak for sure about hers. For those who say a family resemblance is proof of biological heritage, just going to point out that our daughter apparently bears a strong resemblance to both her mother and me. This is not out of left field somewhere–she has my coloring and her mother’s build, and I guess her facial structure resembles both of ours. But there’s no genetic link, and yet people have frequently commented on the family resemblance. I remember talking to one acquaintance about adoption (in the abstract–he didn;t know I had an adopted child) when my daughter wandered by; she would’ve been about 9 or 10. He looked at her; he looked at me. “There goes somebody who is CLEARLY not adopted,” he said with a grin. “Um…” I said… Not to invalidate the idea that family resemblance is important…but the power of suggestion is strong, and not all who resemble family members are biologically connected to them. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/49 "2018-07-11T02:22:38Z")
I look striking similar to my older brother, and my sister in between us is similar enough. I feel sorry for my youngest brother though; he doesn’t fit the mold. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/50 "2018-07-11T07:24:12Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > I’m the fourth of four sons. If my parents had gone the adoption route, they would have adopted a girl. I’m the fifth of five. I claim,\* “They stopped when they got it right”.\* 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/51 "2018-07-11T07:37:00Z")
All four of we children have the same nose and chin, which we got from our mother. And I think we got our bloodtype from her too, AB+. None of us look like our Dad specifically, though as we age our Polynesian feature have become clearer. I also laugh like my Dad did, which is a tiny bit weird. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/52 "2018-07-11T13:25:38Z")
As I have mentioned several times on these boards, no female in my mother’s side of the family has ever had any sense of direction. I don’t mean a bad sense of direction, I mean no sense of direction. We are totally lacking that gene I have no sense of direction. Proof positive. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/53 "2018-07-11T15:42:39Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > All four of we children have the same nose and chin, which we got from our mother. And I think we got our bloodtype from her too, AB+. Sorry, but I have to correct this misconception. Blood type does not come from one parent. If you are AB, you got an A gene from one parent and a B gene from the other (neither of your parents is type O). Still, it’s unusual that all four children would be AB unless one parent is homozygous AA and the other is homozygous BB. But you said your mother was AB, so y’all just got lucky – you can received blood from anybody. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/54 "2018-07-11T16:16:19Z")
As a child I looked nothing like anyone in my family. It was obvious that my siblings were my mother’s, but in photo after photo I look like the neighbour’s child. We have a cousin who looks more like my siblings than I do. There’s a photo of my dad as a teenager and people used to look at that and ask when my brother got a motorcycle… Now, as adults, it’s pretty obvious that me, my dad, and his brother are three of a kind. Similar height, build, hair pattern, head size, hand size – while my sibs are all still obviously related to my mother. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/55 "2018-07-11T19:47:00Z")
All you have to do is to look at my hands - my father’s broad, meaty palm, and my mother’s long, knobby fingers. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/56 "2018-07-11T21:36:22Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > Well, I’m definitely my mom’s kid. Got pictures that basically prove it. If she didn’t have me, I would have found out about that by now. > > I bear enough of a resemblance to my dad that I’ve never questioned that. That, and my mom’s a saint and I seriously doubt she would have had me by another man. > > Now, MY kids? Only one of four them looks anything like me. I have brown eyes, my wife has green. 3 out of 4 of my kids has green eyes. I don’t know the odds of that happening, but I think it’s pretty small. My dad had brown eyes, and my mom’s were kinda hazel-ish (my high school friends said they were “violet”). Four kids: my older sister has green eyes, me, my other sister and brother have blue eyes in decreasing intensity of hue starting with me and ending with my brother, whose eyes are almost grey. I asked my high school physiology teacher about this, and she said my mom would had to have had 100 kids to have a reasonable statistical sampling. My mom said she wasn’t willing – even for science. Interestingly, I only recently found out that two blue-eyed parents could have a brown-eyed child – which I’d always been told was impossible. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/57 "2018-07-11T22:00:47Z")
Oh, and my younger sister and I sound almost identical on the phone. This is the sister I share a condo with. When she doesn’t want to talk to someone when they call she says she’s me. Nobody has ever called her on it. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/58 "2018-07-12T02:11:08Z")
Both my older sisters have assured me that I was the offspring of my parents. When I was a baby they kept asking my parents to return me. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/59 "2018-07-12T02:21:41Z")
> [@ioioio](#): > > Still, it’s unusual that all four children would be AB unless one parent is homozygous AA and the other is homozygous BB. So my mother being AB+ and all four of us kids also being AB+ is just coincidence? Are you sure? ---
**Author:** ![Newtosite](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/newtosite/32/8623_2.png) [@Newtosite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Newtosite)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630/60 "2018-07-12T10:28:46Z")
I never saw any resemblance between my mom and myself. But after she died, I discovered an old home movie reel I’d never known existed. It was of my mom at around age 18, and she looked exactly like me at that age. It was uncanny. Before I learned the full story of where babies come from, I once commented to my (biological) dad that he was only related to me by marriage. :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-sure-your-parents-are-your-biological-forebearers/817630.md?page=4)