It Is in the Genes

Look at that word “genealogy.” The basis is “gene”. Just a couple of years ago scientists “mapped” the entire gene system in our DNA. The increase in understanding our bodies is amazing. Recent discoveries proved that Darwin was right. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded.

Darwin did not sit under a tree and dream up a “theory.” I read “The Origin of Species.” The technical detail is massive. All the factual detail is a bore. Darwin looked at animals and birds. He saw and compared. Scientists are still impressed by what he understood just by observing.

We now know that 90% of the DNA in all mammals is the same. You are 90% the same as a mouse or an elephant. Our closest relatives are the chimpanzees, with which we share 95% of our DNA. Only .0001% makes you unique among human beings.

Before we knew about DNA, before Darwin, there was Mendel. (I hope I have the name right. It has been more than 60 years since I graduated from college.) Anyway, there was this monk who proved that if a brown rabbit mated a white rabbit, the four babies would all be brown, but in the next generation one in four would be pure white.

I think I remember the ratio correctly. The point is: this monk discovered that there are “dominant” and “recessive” characteristics. All the males in my family have a little brown spot on the base of their necks, like a small birthmark. That’s a dominant characteristic.

Daddy’s hair (before it turned white) was dark, dark brown; Mother was “strawberry blond.” My brother George's hair was red; his son's is brown. My brother Don’s hair, now gray, was light, light brown; his two sons’ hair is fiery red.

One trait may be dominant for generation after generation until: Surprise! Two brown-haired, brown-eyed people have a blond, blue-eyed daughter.

In my family we have a recessive name.

My great-grandfather was Preston.
My grandfather was Joe.
My father was Byron.
My youngest brother was George.
George’s son is Terrance.

Actually, all of them were Preston: Great-grandfather was Preston R. Pattie; the rest were Joseph Preston, Byron Preston, George Preston, Terrance Preston.

The only Pattie I know of with Preston as a first name is the grandson of my grandfather Joe’s brother, Hugh Pattie, who was in turn the grandson of the first Preston Pattie.

Is this name following a Mendelian ratio? Or am I falsely comparing genealogy with gynecology? This is like comparing the facts of biology with the caprices of naming children. Like saying a person who supports national health care is a Russian Communist!