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CRSouser
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Is it possible to inherit the physical look of one ancestor specifically?

My family and I are Swiss, but my dad has a very Mediterranean look.

His skin tends to be copper-coloured, he has very dark and very curly hair. This is especially obvious in photographs where he was little, he really looks like a foreign guy, and is very obviously different to other kids physically (back then when there was few immigrants here).

My brother and I also inherited some of his physical properties, but to an lesser extent. We also tend to be slightly darker skinned, darker haired, and curlier than most people in our country. Not so long ago someone was sure that I was Greek just because of how I look.

However, my dad only has Swiss, Austrian and Polish documented ancestry, with the exception of one of his great-great-grandmothers which came from the region of Bearn in southern France.

This is the only single place of southern/Mediterranean origin we have in the family, and thus, it would be the only explanation of my Dad's Mediterranean physical appearance. For example, François Brayou, a French politician from Bearn, has a physical appearance close to my father's. (*)

But however my father is only 1/16th Bearnais, which normally should not matter all that much when it comes to his physical appearance.

Hence my question: Is it possible that only one remote ancestor specifically determines your look significantly more than the proportion of his DNA (1/16 in that case)?

(*) Brayou also seems to be 1/4 Irish and thus only 3/4 bearnais, but that's yet another issue...

Bregalad
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