Genealogy Chat

If you look at the research on the website I mentionoed above, its something to do with having a right handed gene but there is no known left handed gene, people without the right handed gene can be either handed, but people with the right handed gene will always be right handed,Weird or what! 'spose accounts for all the speech impediments caused in my family by changing over hands! Kim

I too am left-handed. I broke my left wrist when I was about 6, and was made to write with my right hand while the left arm was in plaster. I went back to using my left hand as soon as possible though. I'm not going back that far either - this was the early 1970s! Barbara

my grandmother, great uncle, father, mother, and sister are all left handed but me and 3 of my children are right handed, the baby hasn't made up her mind yet! My Great uncle was forced to write with his right hand in school and this caused him to stutter. caroline

This is a weird one: View Record An Infant Child Found abt 1840 Yorkshire, England Leeds Town Yorkshire

Yes indeed, the left-handed twin thing is in mirror-image identical twins. (There are several types of 'identical twins') The theory is that left-handed people are the survivors of a twin pregnancy - the other twin died very early in pregnancy and it would not be known that the survivor was a twin. This is only for mirror-image twins pregnancies, not for all twin births. Mirror twin pregnancies are a result of the fertilised egg splitting in two at a specific time in the pregnancy - a time which the scientists have now narrowed down to 12 hours!!! My eldest daughter is left-handed AND left-footed, which caused big problems when she joined the Army and had to march in time. She was forced at school to write with her right hand - but the teachers gave up in the end - they made her put her left hand on her head - she co-operated by putting her right hand on her head and writing with the left! Of course, left handed people cannot know whether they are the surviving twin of a pregnancy, and neither can the scientists, but it is a fascinating theory. OC

Found this very interesting website about twin research in America http://psy.rin.ru/eng/article/124-101.html Apparently its all to do with the brain! Kim

Saw a program once about twins , some are 'mirror' twins ie one right and one left handed and some are 'identical' both being same handed. Kim

I'm left-handed. My mother had a brother, who died young but was ambidextrous. Neither of us were twins. Maybe wrong, but ALL the identical twins I've met have had one right and one lefthanded twin. This always puzzled me.

If you put 'NK' in on the Familysearch lds census there are over 600 entries! (NK for not known ) As for difficult births - don't think its at all connected as my daughter's birth was much more difficult than my son's and he's the left handed one! Kim (hoping that after yesterday the apostrophes are in the correct place!!)

I heard once that difficult births were usually lefties. Don't know if there's an ounce of truth in it. As for usless census info well there's someone on the census with one of my families listed only as 'Unknown person' They didn't even get their own line. They were scribbed in almost as an after thought.

Left handed things- My great uncle maternal was left leftt handed , but made to write right handed b1919. On the paternal side my grandfather b1899 and his sisterb1910 both made to write right handed and suffered severe speech stammers because of it. My paternal great grandfather was we believe right handed , a bank clerk, lost his arm in the war and had to write with his left hand... My brother my father my son and I are left handed. If it's not genetic, then there is an awful lot of unsucessful twins in the family! Useless census info: I've found a two year old occupation : Mischief and a four year old occupation :Love child , also in Frimley somewhere is Man on barge occupation : Sleeping! I'd like that for an occupation , wonder how much he got paid!! Kim

OC!!! Useless facts about twins ...!!!! I'm proud of you!!! There is supposed to be a connection between lefthandedness and twins, possiby the lefthandness gene being carried on or near the 'twins' gene. But right or lefthandedness isn't entirely genetic, which is why there can be identical twins, one righthanded and one left! There's even a theory that scans during pregnancy increase the chances of lefthandedness and twins tend to have more scans than single babies! My twins are lefthanded, (me and hubby aren't) and my friend (who's twin miscarried, while she survived0 is also lefthanded. Bev x

Mmmm OC, your useless fact, is that why my oldest son was born a Gemini and sometimes seems to have a duel personality. Updated to say hes also left handed Sylvia

awww John *hugs* I wasn't being a meaney , It really brought it home how hard it was and is for lefties! ( quite lucky around here we have a lefties shop :D ) And much better than the vicar who seemed to have popped a spider in the inkwell and just let it run over the page ;)

John A useless fact Did you know that genticists now believe that left-handed people are the surviving identical twin? (So called Mirror Image Identical Twins) OC

'Ere you, us left-handers have a lot to put up with. I learned?? to write with a dipper pen (suck the new nib before using) and horrible ink made up from powder. The basins in the boys' toilets were always stained bright blue. The nib stuck in the paper and made blots, which the side of my little finger then smoothed out into a pale blue wash. It was only many years later that I read that pen nibs came in RH and LH varieties. My brother, 2 years younger, was taught to write with a ball-point pen. And just try cutting anything with scissors in your left hand. The hand-holes are the wrong shape and the blades are forced apart instead of together. It's a good thing that most hand tools are ambidextrous (if that term can be applied to an inanimate object). J

Not useless census but usless parish records. The vicar that recorded alot of my ancestors births and marriages was left handed and had a leaky pen and no blotting paper! lol

Tina My thoughts entirely - one of them must be mine - which one, though!? This is of course the 1841 where the ages were rounded up and down and I know by the address given who James and Margaret are. I also know they have umpteen grandsons called James..... OC

I do wonder if the enumerators in incidences like these just couldn't be bothered to find out the names, or whether the people involved refused to give their names! Bev x

my gt gt grandfather and gtgt grandmother are on the 1861 census as a man and woman! why couldnt the man taking the census details have written down their names? all the details around them show they are the people i am looking for: right employer right place time etc;