Tuesday, July 4, 2017

It's As Plain As The Nose On Your Face

I hope you are all enjoying your 4th of July celebrations!  I have just completed wading through the file of pictures shared by cousin Maurizio Dalpiaz and given to Kathleen and Robert during their most recent visit to Italy.  There are (blessedly) many of them but they got re-named and re-sorted when I loaded them into my computer so I had some extra work to do before I could share some with you.

Most exciting (to me) were the pictures of your great grandparents Giuseppe and Barbara Odorizzi Dalpiaz.  You share these great grandparent with Maurizio, and he was loaded with pictures!  This demonstrates the importance of finding those cousins out there so that such information and images can be shared.

Giuseppe looks a little forbidding to me here, but I think many of the Dalpiaz kids will easily recognize Barbara.  I find it interesting that Giuseppe appears to be lean and tall; Barbara appears rounder and definitely shorter.

Here's a group shot with Barbara and Giuseppe in the center.  I can't begin to name the others without further study....but the boy in the suit jacket on the far left in the front row reminds me a great deal of a picture of your dad Robert Dalpiaz that I've seen around.  It's interesting how looks pass down in families.

Recently I've had several discussions with people interested in the DNA reports for myself and for James.  A common thought might be that other siblings might not need to get their DNA tested as long as one sibling has done so, since you share parents.  This could not be further from truth.  A good example is demonstrated here now that I see what Giuseppe looked like.

Here's a picture of the "other" Costante Dalpiaz.  I'll call him Uncle Costante.  He was Giuseppe's brother (Maria Kussman's grandfather).  I think you can see a striking resemblance even though the image is poor (taken from their passport application).

In contrast, here's the well known picture of Grandfather Costante and his mother Barbara

Pretty plain to see that he resembles his mother more than his father.  Pio, Grandfather Costante's brother has the longer face of his father.  One brother resembles Mom, another resembles Dad.  It's all in the genes.  DNA, folks.  Though you share parents, your DNA is different for each of you.  Some of you may share more from your mother and some may share more from your dad.  I'll let you figure out which is which; but the important point here is that if you are interested in DNA for genealogical purposes, you should go ahead and have the test done.  Your results should resemble your siblings' results, but won't be exactly the same.  It's as plain as the nose on your face.