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Archiver > FERGUSON-DNA > 2008-02 > 1202327190


From: Richard Hyatt <>
Subject: Re: [FERGUSON-DNA] Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 11:46:30 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <1603836320-1202324759-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-841789105-@bxe111.bisx.prod.on.blackberry>


This is quite interesting.
Why do some of My Ferguson Aunts and Uncles have Dark
Hair and Dark complexion and others have straw colored
Hair and Blue Eyes and from the Same Parents?
MY Ferguson Great Grandparents were both Dark, In fact
Nancy Pryor Ferguson may have been a descendant of
Niketta the sister to Pocahontas and was definitely
Dark as was my Great Grandfather Benjamin Witt
Ferguson.
Before that I do not know We have never been able to
find anything about our Great Great Grandmother
Margaret Ferguson or Joseph R Ferguson our Great Great
Grandfather.
By the way see a marriage record in VA or MS for a
Joseph R Ferguson and A Margaret? WE sure would be
tickled to hear about it. A Obit record for Joseph R
in and around Shelby County TN welcomes as well.
I have Hazel eyes but my Mother married a Maples and
we know only that they were of French extraction and
were related to David Stern Crockett, who by the way
was also French. I refer to them as Fighting French
not the watered down version of we know today.
The DNA test says we may be related to the Family of
a Luke Ferguson of Bludsoe county TN, anyone know
about that family?
Thanks
Richard
--- Holly ferguson <> wrote:

> I think the naitive american in my dad's family
> dominated the blue eyes...I think his grandfather
> had blue eyes.
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Angus Ferguson
> <>
>
> Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:02:32
> To:FERGUSON DNA <>
> Subject: Re: [FERGUSON-DNA] Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes
>
>
> I have blue - grey eyes, as does my son
> (thankfully!) but biologically, I'm
> probably not a Ferguson! Ahh, the objective reality
> of genetic genealogy!
>
> Angus Ferguson
>
>
> > From: Denise Lake <>
> > Reply-To: <>
> > Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 13:21:10 -0500
> > To: <>,
> <>
> > Subject: Re: [FERGUSON-DNA] Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes
> >
> > Just looked it up and for the 4 generations that I
> can check, we all had
> > blue eyes.
> >
> > How cool is this?
> > Denise Ferguson Lake
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:
> > [mailto:] On
> Behalf Of Sandy Sellers
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 11:57 AM
> > To:
> > Subject: [FERGUSON-DNA] Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes
> >
> > New research shows that people with blue eyes have
> a single, common
> > ancestor. A team at the University of Copenhagen
> have tracked down a
> > genetic mutation which took place 6-10,000 years
> ago and is the cause of
> > the eye colour of all blue-eyed humans alive on
> the planet today. What
> > is the genetic mutation
> >
> > "Originally, we all had brown eyes", said
> Professor Eiberg from the
> > Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine.
> "But a genetic mutation
> > affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes
> resulted in the creation of a
> > "switch", which literally "turned off" the ability
> to produce brown
> > eyes". The OCA2 gene codes for the so-called P
> protein, which is
> > involved in the production of melanin, the pigment
> that gives colour to
> > our hair, eyes and skin. The "switch", which is
> located in the gene
> > adjacent to OCA2 does not, however, turn off the
> gene entirely, but
> > rather limits its action to reducing the
> production of melanin in the
> > iris - effectively "diluting" brown eyes to blue.
> The switch's effect on
> > OCA2 is very specific therefore. If the OCA2 gene
> had been completely
> > destroyed or turned off, human beings would be
> without melanin in their
> > hair, eyes or skin colour - a condition known as
> albinism. Limited
> > genetic variation
> >
> > Variation in the colour of the eyes from brown to
> green can all be
> > explained by the amount of melanin in the iris,
> but blue-eyed
> > individuals only have a small degree of variation
> in the amount of
> > melanin in their eyes. "From this we can conclude
> that all blue-eyed
> > individuals are linked to the same ancestor," says
> Professor Eiberg.
> > "They have all inherited the same switch at
> exactly the same spot in
> > their DNA." Brown-eyed individuals, by contrast,
> have considerable
> > individual variation in the area of their DNA that
> controls melanin
> > production.
> >
> > Professor Eiberg and his team examined
> mitochondrial DNA and compared
> > the eye colour of blue-eyed individuals in
> countries as diverse as
> > Jordan, Denmark and Turkey. His findings are the
> latest in a decade of
> > genetic research, which began in 1996, when
> Professor Eiberg first
> > implicated the OCA2 gene as being responsible for
> eye colour. Nature
> > shuffles our genes
> >
> > The mutation of brown eyes to blue represents
> neither a positive nor a
> > negative mutation. It isEye one of several
> mutations such as hair
> > colour, baldness, freckles and beauty spots, which
> neither increases nor
> > reduces a human's chance of survival. As Professor
> Eiberg says, "it
> > simply shows that nature is constantly shuffling
> the human genome,
> > creating a genetic cocktail of human chromosomes
> and trying out
> > different changes as it does so."
> >
> >
>
============================================================
> > FERGUS(S)ON DNA Project website:
> >
>
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~colin/Ferguson/DNA/
> > -------------------------------
> > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email
> to
> > with the word
> 'unsubscribe' without the
> > quotes in the subject and the body of the message
> >
> >
>
============================================================
> > FERGUS(S)ON DNA Project website:
> >
>
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~colin/Ferguson/DNA/
> > -------------------------------
> > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email
> to
> > with the word
> 'unsubscribe' without the
> > quotes in the subject and the body of the message
>
>
>
============================================================
> FERGUS(S)ON DNA Project website:
>
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~colin/Ferguson/DNA/
>
> -------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email
> to with the word
> 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and
> the body of the message
>
>
============================================================
> FERGUS(S)ON DNA Project website:
>
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~colin/Ferguson/DNA/
>
> -------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email
> to with the word
> 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and
> the body of the message
>


Don't worry about it!

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