Expert: Walter Hintz - 12/14/2007

Question
QUESTION: My Husband and I got married 2 years ago and had a daughter who is now 1 1/2 years old.  He is of Middle Eastern decent and I am Caucasian with some Native American decent.  We BOTH have brown eyes and when I was younger, I was born with DARK BROWN hair that lightened up and turned VERY BLONDE for about 4 to 5 years then switched back to dark brown hair.  My Husbands hair was very curly and was bright orange reddish when he was a baby.  It later turned to DARK DARK brown.  When we got married, my husband already had a son from another woman who was born in September of 2000.  When his son was born, he was 20 at the time and his ex was 18.  They had been dating since high school and dated for 2 1/2 years before they broke up.  She started dating a 28-year-old man for 6 months before my husband and her began dating again.  During that time, she says she never slept with her ex of 6 months but my husband doubted that to be the truth.  Two weeks after they had been back together, she announced she was pregnant.  My husband questioned it at the time however, he is Muslim, and in their culture, children are a responsibility and a blessing of the utmost extremes.  His ex was a Caucasian women (not sure of the compete decent) with brown hair which was blonde for years when she was a toddler and later switched to dark brown just like mine.  The ex has blue eyes and all her siblings have the same type of hair as her BROWN NOW but blonde for years when they were younger.  My husband is Middle Eastern (family from Jordan and Palestine).  When his son was born, he had BLONDE hair.  No one in my husband’s family has blonde hair.  The child STILL HAS light ash brown blonde hair.  My husband has nine siblings all of whom have curly dark brown hair but all of whom are 100% Middle Eastern.  HIS SON DOES NOT HAVE CURLS EITHER.  His sons ears look different but the nose is kind of the same however the ex’s nose looks like my husbands also.  As his son has gotten older, the ex has limited my husbands contact with him - we have not seen him in over 2 years.  We do have a few photos of him of which we have studied to try to find resemblances however, there are few, BUT they ARE there.  They DO resemble each other.  The ex’s traits look similar to my husband though the ex looks EXACTLY like the child.  The ex is very horrible to him demanding child support, limiting our interaction and contact and she even changed the Childs legal name last year and asked my husband to relinquish his rights to his son.  It is all very strange and over the years, my husband has been more and more concerned of the truth.  Is it possible for his son to have BLONDE hair when he has dark BROWN (orange when he was younger)?  IS IT POSSIBLE FOR HIS SON TO NOT HAVE CURLS if my husband and everyone in his family do?  His sons hair is a mixed brown/blonde color but is VERY light since you cant even really see his eyebrows.  His sons eyes are brown.  When our daughter was born a year and a half ago, she was born with a full head of dark BROWN/BLACK hair. Her hair is lighter now but still dark like milk chocolate AND CURLY underneath straight on top.  She has highlights in her hair but is STILL BROWN.  I am also Caucasian and was blonde when I was younger (DOES THAT MEAN I CARRY A BLONDE GENE??).  Our daughter was born with a full head of DARK BROWN/BLACK hair, as ALL of the babies in his family have been born with the same black/brown hair.  IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE A CHILD with someone who carries a BROWN hair gene and the child come out BORN BLONDE and later with mixed brown ash blonde hair?  Is this possible for middle eastern decent.  Isn’t his Middle Eastern gene the DOMINENT gene?  Shouldn’t their ears look alike or something?  His sons EYES are the SAME almond shape as his though.  Our daughter however looks exactly like my husband!  We do not know much about the other person that she dated for 6 months before my husband however, my husband says he knew him and he was Caucasian and kind of looked like he could be Italian, etc.  We are going back to the courts soon to order a paternity test but still wanted to know what the chances are so that we are better prepared.  We do not have the opportunity to be part of his son’s life and these questions linger everyday.  Your help and scientific opinion would be of great relief.

ANSWER: Hi Brandy;
This appears complicated and all I can do is make some general observations. First of all dark pigments dominate over lift pigments. Parents who have children with light coloration must be carrying genes for light coloration.
Secondly hair, skin and eye color are the result of more than a single pair of genes.
The tests used as paternity test in court are blood tests.  They can only prove if a person is "not" the father; they cannot prove that he is.
 I believe in your case that only a DNA test will answer the problem.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: could he be carrying light pigments since my husbands hair was orange red when he was younger? In your opinion does this situation that i described SOUND AT ALL POSSIBLE? ****????RESULT OF MORE THAN a SINGLE PAIR OF GENES??? could you explain just a bit further as we are so worried about this situation.  thanks for your help!

Answer
Yes it is quite possible from the information you have given.
 More then a single pair of Genes?

 Most traits are the result of a single pair of genes.  Blood types for example.  I am type A.  I got an A gene from my father and an O from my mother.  My father was AB and my mother was OO so I am AO and A is domimnant over O.
But pigmentation results from 2 or more pairs of genes, perhaps 3 pair.  This allows a blending effect.  Otherwise every one would have either very dark hair (or skin or eyes) or very lighthair.  With multiple genes there are shades in between