A tale of twins

Hi everyone

I'm taking a break from the normal shopping/cooking posts today. After mentioning twins the last time, I went and did some research. I never thought much about twins, other than the fact that I've always wanted to have a set of twins (until the Dr told me that I might be expecting twins when I was pregnant with DS), because it's cool 😂, especially since we had lots of twins in the family.

Well, I learned some interesting things. It turns out that twins genetics are carried by females & not males. So if twins run in the father/husband/male partner's side, it won't influence your chances of having twins (not unless you carry the gene). Also, older females (over 35) are more likely to have twins, due to hormonal changes as you near menopause. 

Identical twins come from a single egg that is fertilized by a single sperm cell, which then divides into 2 embryos. Fraternal twins are 2 different eggs, each fertilized by a different sperm cell. So I'm guessing that older females are more likely to have fraternal twins. 

Okay, some of this don't make sense to me, because of my own family's history. I mentioned before that we have twins on both sides of my parents' families. 

Mother's side

I have 2 sets of twins cousins. One of the twins (female) had a set of twin male babies. I have no idea where the twin gene comes from on this side of the family, because it's 2 of my mother's brothers who had twin children. 

Father's side - the more influential side 😂

This is the side I know more about, because my grandmother was a twin. She had a twin sister. They were Rachel & Anna. I don't know anything about grandma's twin's family tree (we do know the family, but I don't know if they have any twins). 

So, the twin gene skipped 2 generations in my father's family. No twin children or grandchildren for my grandmother. I wonder if it's because males dominate that side of the family (there's way, way more males than females. I actually knew that I was having a son, without checking the gender when I was pregnant - genetics & gut feeling) Mmmmm - food for thought. 

I have 2 cousins who each have a set of twins. 

Cousin 1 - Female. Has twin boys

Cousin 2 - Male - Has 4 daughters. One set of twins and 2 single daughters. One of the single daughters has a set of twin boys. 

This is where science gets confusing for me. I don't know about Cousin 2's wife's family history, but I don't think they have any twins in her family (nobody's mentioned it). So how is it that my male cousin ended up with 2 generations of twins? I can understand his single daughter having twins, because the twin gene is carried by women and my grandmother's genes were obviously passed down to some of us females (mind you, both cousins who have twins are my father's brothers' children. So the gene can be passed down to a female through a male parent, but the male himself can't have twin children - at least that's what they/experts say. Guess we proved them wrong 😂)

There's more! My oldest brother is married to a twin. They have 2 sons, one of which has a daughter. Yes, single kids, single granddaughter. So they have twins genes in both of them (SIL is a twin and my brother has twin genes from both parents' families).

So how is it that my male cousin has 2 generations of twins and my brother who has an abundance of twins genes, don't have any? That thing about only females carrying the twin gene doesn't add up for me. Not according to our family history. One thing's for sure though. Twins don't always skip a generation. Sometimes it skips two and sometimes twins will end up having twins. We're proof of that 😂 I wonder if there is testing available that will tell you if you're likely to have twins? 

Well, it was at least interesting to learn about how twins are created. Sadly, my grandmother didn't live long enough to see all/any of the twins that come from her genes. She was aware of our other gene though, but that gene comes from my grandfather (DS, my middle brother & I got this gene. My nephews & nieces all have this gene and so do some of our cousins. My immediate family got a heavy dose though). 

The other thing I'd like to learn more about is what nationalities we are, since we are of mixed race (more research to do. Someone once told me that I have an inquiring mind. They're right, of course 😊). I know that there's DNA testing available for that, but I don't trust sending off my personal info to those companies. Wasn't there a breach of some kind at 23&Me? (I could be wrong, but I know I've read some negative things about that kind of testing before). 

I've tried to research our history, but don't have nearly enough information about our family. My paternal great grandfather is said to have been American (looks like I came full circle, cause guess who's American too 😊). We're not quite sure about this, but my mother told me about it before I moved here. I only have one cousin left who knows about this, but those who knew have all confirmed it. I have a theory about this (there's more involved). I'm not doubting that he was American, because my grandfather had a very American name (It's not common for South Africans to use). My father was raised with very strict British ways though and so were we. That's where the confusion comes in. I still have that theory 😊

I know a bit more about my mother's family. Definitely a good/big mix there. The European gene dominated in my maternal grandmother's family. I've met some of her sisters when I was small and they were all light skinned (like Hispanic whites) with sleek hair. My grandmother (who I loved dearly) always complained that she got the worst hair of her sisters. I feel her pain, because my hair is like hers 😂 (neither kinky, nor sleek. I've got curly hair), while my mother & one of her sisters had much nicer hair (sleeker). I'd like to know more about our genetics, because my mother spoke German (which she learned in high school - I think). This wasn't so unusual, because German was offered in high schools (to whites & coloreds - people of mixed race) back in the day. Please remember that it was compulsory for us to speak both English & Afrikaans (Dutch) - which we learned from the time you start talking, so we had our education in both languages. I learned German when I was in Primary school (middle school). One night after I got home from German school (I attended the German school to learn the language - long story), I was in my parents' bedroom and I remember my mother started speaking to me in German. I had to pick my jaw up from the floor, because I never knew that she spoke German. We all knew that my father was the smarty pants, so it was a huge shock to me. I don't even think that any of my siblings know that our mother was fluent in a 3rd language (I told y'all we're private & like to keep a low profile). I remember her mentioning something about a street name's meaning while we were out one night. I never knew that we were surrounded by streets with German names.  My young mind never made the connection (because Dutch & German languages are so similar), that I assumed that it was Dutch. I know better now 😂

So, back to our heritage. We know that we are part Dutch (always South African of course, but we have a mixed bag of genes). However, the French & Germans (big German population) settled in CT too. So we might have some other European genes mixed in too (I do know a small amount of French too - not much. French is way different from other European languages. Most European languages are similar, so it's easy for me to understand. That's why I understood half those Swedish Christmas cookie names that Kim wrote about. It's because I know both Dutch & German). So, if anyone knows of a safe company to do DNA testing with, please feel free to let me know in the comments. 

Besides Kim, does anyone else have twins in their families? Do you know where the gene comes from? 

Now you've all learned a lot more about me :) There's still many more layers to me.

Have a wonderful weekend peeps!