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Think you don't look like anyone in your family? Think again.

If you’ve ever been to a distant cousin’s wedding, or a fifty-strong family reunion, you’ll have heard this before: “Oh my goodness, you look just like…”

“Your second cousin!”

“Your great aunt!”

“My husband’s step-grandmother! You’re not actually biologically related, but… gee, the resemblance is uncanny.”

Right.

But, it turns out that there’s one family member who you actually do look like:

Your paternal grandmother.

Photographer Ulric Collette (famous for his ‘Genetic Portraits’ series in which he combined the faces of relatives) heard this theory from a geneticist he met in the course of his work. Collette decided to test out the theory, taking a picture of his daughter and his mother, and splitting the image.

This is what he found:

Women look like their paternal grandmother. Spooky, hey?

Check out some more examples of Ulric Collette‘s genetic portraits.

Who do you look like most in your family? Is it your paternal grandmother?

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Top Comments

Guest 10 years ago

This made me really sad cause I never got to meet my paternal grandmother because age died before I was born and my dad doesn't have any pictures if his parents...


Dusk Devi 10 years ago

Well I'm Indian and my (step*)children are all white, blondish and blue, green and hazel eyed... but people swear they look like me!

*I dislike applying this term. I have brought them up since they were babies/infants... in every way -except blood (and skin colour!)- I am their mother and they are my treasures :) )