Congrats doucebag

Your husband has some explaining to do, OP.

My friend has blond hair and brown eyes but neither of his parents do. But in old photos you see his father and mother actually both used to have blond hair. People change as they get older. I still think you should do some investigating though

39 that is only with hair that is blond or red. Something like dimples and freckles is permanent.

As everyone is saying, the discrepancies in your nephew's physical traits are hardly proof that your nephew isn’t your brother-in-law’s child. Regardless, if your sister did cheat, I've heard that people other than your husband have blue eyes, dimples, and freckles. Kind of makes you a bad wife for assuming that if your sister cheats, and it is mildly linked to your husband, that you would make that logical leap without further evidence.

It sucks that she had to find out on her own...

those are all recessive traits OP. Your sister and her husband and YOU could very well be carrying them.

Agreed with 86. The people in your family and your sister's husband's family may not have any of those recessive traits in their appearance, but it's possible that they each possess the dominant AND the recessive allele - making them heterozygous and therefore making it possible for your nephew to have the recessive traits you listed

Awesome, thanks guys. Now I'm dossing and studying my Biology at the same time. :p

I have blonde hair but my parents don't and none of my siblings do. it happens sometimes. My sister always used to tell me I was adopted when I was younger and I believed her.

132- how can someone 'has be in denial'? That part of the sentence was unnecessary, 'is in denial' would have been fine. And no we aren't in denial, we are merely suggesting another possibility

132: Have you considered a role in politics? I'm pretty sure the argument "I'm right and if you disagree, no matter how logically, you're a bastard" is popular right now; you could go far!

#132, you serious? You're just as crazy as OP.

Tell your sister

Don't worry about it op, my 2 siblings ended up with straight long black hair, while I have light brown, slow growing, short curly hair. Apparently my great grandparents had these traits, and it just skipped a few generations.

#2 Please explain to me how this is funny. Either you were trying to be the first comment or you are clearly an idiot. As for op, people do change over time but keep your eye out...you never know.

This reminds me of something that happened to my mothers friend years ago. Her baby was born with african american skin/features even though they were both white w/brown hair. Her husband filed for divorce and she demanded a paternity test. In the end it turned out his great grandmother was black. Ah those tricky genes/family history. Things to look into before assuming.

Agghhh! WE NEED DOCBASTARD!

Op should do a secret DNA test on them.

There is way too much misinformation and speculation swirling around here. The fact is that hair, eye, and skin color do NOT follow strict Mendelian genetics patterns, and you can't just use a Punnet square to predict it. Just this weekend my wife and I had friends over who both have blue eyes, yet BOTH of their children have brown eyes. Mendelian genetics states that this shouldn't be possible, yet it is. There are many genes that control eye color in particular, so OP is way off base here in assuming infidelity.

Or, has some knowledge of biology and genetics. I have some facial traits of my mothers but have the rest from my grandmother.

that's not true #51 my face was convered with freckles when I was younger, I have 0 now.

It would still be her nephew...not a stepson...lol

but if her nephew marries her mother than her husband will be his own grandpa

Seems like perfect Maury Show material

Nephew and Stepson at the same time... sounds like the makings of an Alabama family

Actually it would be her stepson because she is MARRIED to him and that is his legal child, therefore her stepson.

It is not his legal child. It may be his biological child, but it is OP's brother-in-law's legal child.

I'm my own grandpaaaaa!!!

Jerry Springer here we come!!! :)

Nephew/ Stepson... Because he is both her sister's and her husband's biological child.

I agree with #3. It could just be a random recessive trait. Check it out before assuming.

I agree.

It actually is his legal child. Paternity trumps birth certificate/ marriage. All you would need is a blood test.

Pointless little story but: I'm actually my own uncle. Not as cool as being my own gramps but oh we'll. Can't win them all. OP, get some DNA and run the test. I do hope you're wrong though. Infidelity is a bitch.

Fry?!

Comment deleted.

I agree with you,

Perhaps people should learn how genetics works. I don't want to live on this planet anymore. Faith in humanity ruined.

One person doesn't know shit about genetics and you lose faith in humanity? Please, the world is in shit right now, and I haven't lost faith in humanity yet. How about just stop spouting memes to express your faith in your species and live your life.

Yet you typed all that out

I think the freckles are a recessive trait for OP

Oh please my son has browny/green eyes and light blonde hair. I have brown hair and brown eyes and his dad has dark brown hair and blue eyes. Random! Doesn't mean that I cheated on his dad, just means he takes from far out members

That's what a person who cheated would say... I kid, I got green eyes while my parents' families have brown and blue eyes. And don't get me started on how many people comment on it.

#259 it does actually sound a but suspect lol! It's the same in my family, all brown hair and brown or blue eyes but mum is ginger and my son is blonde.

Ya OP you made quite a leap straight to suspicion. The traits could just be recessive, or even random. Plus even if your sister cheated why assume it was with your husband?

There's a possibility

This comment jumps to an incredible number of conclusions.

93 - So does the OP.

There you go, 114. I saw a Maury episode where two blondes had a ginger baby despite their families all being blonde. Shitty source, but yeah. OP, don't make mountains out of molehills, but if it bothers you enough then be prepared for the results of the test.

That's for sure. OP maybe your sister really knows how to breed properly lol you Aussie's are strange.

What? I don't understand what's wrong.

Never mind

Hey they could be ressive genes

Oh yes, the mysterious ressive genes, not to be confused with recessive genes of course....

??

Hahahahahaha hahahaha man that sucks for u lol

he probably has been unfaithful before for her to even think like this. if not and shes just paranoid then fhl.

Ha!

For someone to have blue eyes, the trait has to run in both sides of the family. So either op's family DOES have blue eyes, or the kid's adopted.

Are you kidding me? No one here has ever heard of recessive traits? Only way to be certain is to do a paternity test.

Coming from a hardworking biology student this situation is more than plausible.

Not really. Blue eyes (though eye color is more complicated than most physical features) and freckles are recessive traits. It is possible for two people who do not show those features to give birth to someone who does (remember Mendel from science). Now if it was a dominant trait, like red hair, then you worry!

I agree with #7, it's very common for traits to skip a generation or two and show back up in the young generations, especially recessive traits like blue eyes.

Dude. She could be Italian or something. It might be true, he could have cheated on her. There's enough reason of her to suspect that. Only once in a blue moon do things with recessive alleles happen in the most weirdest of times. There's a 100% Mexican boxer, who's family is completely and utterly Mexican, yet he turned out pale with red hair, and light blue/green eyes.

She did say those genes don't run in her family nor her in-laws. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wild genes don't suddenly appear along the hereditary line. Could the genes mutate? But based on her post, I say she has reasonable right to doubt her husband.

Does anyone know what non-Mendelian inheritance is? I have a test on it tomorrow

Ah, what the hell. I've got blue eyes, freckles and a square jaw. My dad has brown eyes, no freckles, and a narrow jaw. My mom is the same except she has blue eyes as well. So according to some people, my mom cheated. BAM, LOGIC.

Blue eyes are recessitive which means it can run in a family with the dominant brown eyes.

Ahh crap recessive recessive!

7, There are many topics that you don't expect the entire world to have an understanding of and genetics falls into that category. If anything, it'd suck to have anything to do with someone who is completely intolerant of any form of ignorance. People aren't going to know everything, what you should be hating on her for is jumping online and spouting bullshit before doing her research. This isn't ignorance, it's stupidity.

No, they don't. There were french jews who could pass off as aryan in WWII.

No sweetie, YOU obviously have no idea how traits are passed

Thank you, I hope will read this too. Some people.

Thank you 8. I feel like OP is one of those women that will look for anything to say that their spouse is a cheating bastard. Example: OP: What is this? *shows husband lingere* Husband: Damn, you found them. I-- OP: So you ARE cheating on me! You bastard! Husband: What? No, of course not! It's close to our anniversary, and I wanted to get you something sexy. It's still on the hanger, for goodness sakes! OP:*huffs* Fine. But I'll catch you. Eventually... Yep. Sounds a lot like OP.

But then again if either of the parents have a dominate gene then the recessive gene is suppressed automatically. And OP stated that the gene is not present in either family at all which leads to further questions.

Maybe it's just me but sometimes I think FMLs need a follow up FML. You know, to alleviate discrepancies.

Wrong. Both of my parents have dark hair and dark eyes. I came out with lighter hair and blue eyes. The dominant genes decrease the likeliness of showing the recessive ones. But they cannot be suppressed definitively.

Actually dimples are a true Mendelian dominant gene. Google it.

65 - I'm pretty certain freckles are dominant too, thank God. Sexy, sexy freckles.

As a foot note, any eye colour can be developed by a baby regardless of parent eye colours. Yes brown eyed parents can have green eyed kids although it's rarer than two green eyed parents.

Dimples don't fall in that cathegory. I'm no biologist, but I learned that dimples are passed down directly from a parent. No other way. NOT sure this is true. You're the google generation, I'd love for someone to prove one way or another cause this is actually interesting.

#142: My Mom has blue eyes, my Dad has brown eyes, and I have green eyes. Only one relative (a first cousin) also has green eyes, and neither of his parents have green eyes either.

Having one dominant and one recessive copy of a gene will lead to the appearance dictated by the dominant gene but the recessive gene isn't suppressed or altered or anything like that and has an equal chance of being passed on to the persons children. Even though both OP's sister and brother in law both have say brown eyes, they could still be carrying the gene for blue eyes. If this is the case, every child they have has a 25% chance of getting two copies of the blue eye gene and having blue eyes. The chances decease when you consider more traits, but it is still possible that OPs brother in law is her nephews father and that her nephew just inherited a few recessive traits from his heterozygous parents, who wouldn't show them due to having a copy of the dominant gene.

Exactly. OP, of you did biology in high school, you would understand that this is how genes work

Does anybody know anything about non-Mendelian inheritance? I have a test on it tomorrow and this fml seems somewhat relevant

Thumb me down all you like, but I was right. http://www.genetic.com.au/genetic-traits-dimples.html

Dimples are a dominant trait

Does anybody know what non-Mendelian inheritance is?