Body Heritage
Great Grandmother Porter (my mother’s father’s mother).
I used to joke that I came from Hardy European Peasant™ stock, (Irish-German-Polish on my mother’s side, and Welsh-Scottish on my father’s) and going through some old family photos, realize that joke isn’t so far off the mark. I’m built like most of the women on my mother’s side of the family: short thick waist, broad shoulders and hips, short neck. My foremothers may have been sturdy and stout but they were “strong like ox,” and up to the demands of hard physical labor on farms and running their homes, while bearing and raising (numerous) children.
Below are pictures of my Grandma Porter (my mother’s mother) as a young woman and in her 60’s.
Looking at these pictures is a good reminder of what’s realistic and not for my body type. Much as I have often aspired to a more willowy, aristocratic silhouette, it’s just not in the cards (or genes) for me. I spent so many years thinking my body was “wrong” rather than understanding that my build was mostly a result of my genetic heritage, and not recognizing the positive parts of that heritage: physical strength, endurance, skin that does not burn easily, green eyes.
Sometimes it seems that we only think of family resemblances above the neck. We talk about how “she has her Grandfather’s eyes” or “she has her Aunt’s chin” but we don’t often hear “you have your Grandmother’s hips.”
Have you recognized your own body heritage in old family photos? Whom do you most resemble?
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LOL I always say “I am strong Russian wooman.”
Such great pictures!
OMG…this is my destiny too…all of 5 foot 1 and busty, hippy and I AM MY GRANDMOTHER! I so relate, genetically, I am a clone, and I cannot whittle the waist, or reduce the bust…Scottish Irish strong women who are a force to be reckoned with!
Wonderful photographs! …. know all about inheriting a ‘shape’ – more weight on hips and thighs and bottom than we’d desire is a family trait, – my mother, her mother, both of my sisters, my daughter and both of my nieces!! We joke it’s the ‘family bottom’ !!
I’m really hoping my kids don’t get my MIL’s calves (they are very very slim).
Great photos.
My body shape is unlike either of my parents – think I’m some sort of genetic throwback. Though one of my friends recently told me that my hair (going grey) is now the same colour as my mum’s!
Aloha,
That is such a great post,I just did one on the Blue eyes that my Husbands Maternal line passed down, but when I think of who I take after, I have to wonder? I take after my Dads side Hawaiian , but I have been doing my Hawaiian Family search for the last 21 years, 8 years ago I acquired 2 photos for the first time of My Fathers Mother!! I finally saw the women that gave me my polynesian Hair. I guess I should post the story!! anyway thanks fro the reminders
Aloha Wishes from across the sea
Brandi
Marvelous photos–and a thought-provoking question. I am the spitting image of my father’s mother. I was told this from my teenage years, and as I’ve aged, there has been no doubt about it.
My family is fortunate to have a photograph of my grandma at 16 (1912 or thereabouts), riding her horse. (Her brother was a local photographer and brought his camera rig out to the farm one day.) That is the photo that really spoke to me as a teenager.
I also have a formal photograph of her taken in the late 1920s, when she was about 30, on display in the original frame, as well as many photos of her in later years.
Lucky genetic inheritance:
Tall, slim, long legs, big green eyes, distinctive rosebud mouth
Not so lucky:
Thin, nondescript hair; dark circles under the eyes; tendency toward a double chin, increasing with age 🙁
You know, I think she’s got STYLE!
Oh, absolutely. My sister take after my mom’s side of the family: tall and thin. I take after my father’s side: short, thick, busty, huge rearend and a tendency to extract every last calorie out of anything I eat. I swear I could gain weight on wood chips.
Yes! And once we accept that tall and willowy is not the sole descriptor of beauty we are free to be who we are. I am sad when I hear women mourning, “Oh, I have my grandmother’s thighs” as if our ancestors made us aesthetically deficient.
Wonderful photo of your great-grandmother — you’re lucky to have this! My family is large (each of my parents had 9 brothers and sisters!) so the wide range of possibilities is clear. Except for one tall, large-boned aunt, my mother, her sisters and their mother (my grandma) were quite petite although I never really recognized this ’til I was older. My three “English aunties” were sturdy-plump, fairly busty women, but none over 5’6″. I grew up absorbing my mom’s depiction of them as “too” somehow, and again, only as an adult realized they were not particularly overweight, but well-suited to their build. One of my sisters is an exact replica while another is as small and wiry as my mom and the rest of us fall somewhere in between. Such an interesting post, Pseu, and your readers’ comments make for a fascinating discussion — thank you!
Our family photos have disappeared along the way, so I don’t know. My grandparents all came from Lithuania, and I remember seeing a TV special on Lithuanians in Chicago. I noticed many of the women looked like me! Many of us are tall, I’m 5’7″. And the younger generation is even taller. Though one also see short Lithuanians. Maybe it has to do with some interbreeding with the Vikings?
Wonderful photos!
And yes, many of my siblings and I share a body shape (though heights and weights and bust size differ) and facial features that have ALWAYS been referred to by my grandmother etc as the “X Family Such-and-Such.”
Said with either pride or despair, depending on the part in question. The lessons one’s to absorb sure start young, don’t they?
I must say that while I think it’d be wonderful if families could be all-positive all the time about inheritable traits, maybe they could pass on a little education on how to (optionally) dress a certain part or shape–or deal with a certain kind of hair–too. WORK WITH ME, PEOPLE
ps While it was fine for anyone to bemoan said “unfortunate” family body parts growing up, now that I (mostly) get how to emphasize/deemphasize parts to create a more proportionate look it annoys my mother to hear me say “well, I try to wear blah blah to offset my short legs/long torso/wide feet/ etc.”
Maybe because she prefers being the only leggy, delicately hoove’d one, ha!
Wonderful post, Pseu! I can’t help imagining how tightly Grandmère was laced into her corset, and how she must have longed for the photo session to be finished so she could breathe again!
Oh boy, the older I get the more I see that in my physical body, biology (genealogy) does equal destiny.
Norwegian/German on my Mother’s side; Scots and French on my Father’s. I receive my short stature and dark hair and eyes from both sides. But I can thank Mom’s side for the lack of a defined waistline and my large bust that tends to hover closer to the waist then it should from my Father’s country-French Mother. One can only stand up straight, dress the best for one’s body type and celebrate the fact that we are here as a living testimony of our family’s past.
I am also a hearty peasant (like my mom and her line). Irish/English/Scottish/German/French. I put on muscle as easily as fat and can hike for hours and easily lift the 50 lb bags of cat litter we buy.
I’ll never be a willowly aristo either, which was a bit painful back when I really, really did want to narrow down and be able to wear those beautiful men’s wear styles. I think that I gave up and now no longer care (since being in good health and strong has its own advantages).
Great pix!
I look just like the women on my father’s side of the family. In fact, when I found a photo of my great-grandmother at 20, I did a double-take. I look JUST like her, both facially, and in body type (large eyes, slim nose, pouty mouth, med-height, stout/strong, curvy).
I revel in the amazing things my foremothers did with their s(t)olid bodies — cross the country by wagon, build a cabin on Mt. Palomar (by hand and alone, except for the sawmill), serve as a practical nurse in the goldfields of the Yukon… and all of them lived to their late 80’s and 90’s.
When people marvel at my strength and endurance (often with the subtext of “you’re very fit for a fat girl,” alas), I say, “I came by it honestly!” Not all genetic inheritance is about the looks, after all!
Miss J inherited her Mamaw Crickets bust. And sense of humor.
Love the pics, Miss Pseu!
i am built exactly like the women on my father’s side of the family: short, stout but shapely (we always have a waist) with an imposing bossom. my paternal grandmother came from glasgow. when i went there for the first time, i saw my grandmother (and, therefore, *me*) everywhere i went. then i met some female cousins — all like me. it made me far more accepting of my physical attributes below the neck, as you say. sometimes genetics *is* destiny. my grandmother lived to be 93! i hope that i got those genes too.
Great title, and a very good question you raise here.
I have my mother and grandmother’s tendency to lose our waists in early middle life. And I have my dad’s large calves.
I love the pix of your relatives.
I recognise my shape in all snaps of my grandmas and their mums. Excellent post!
Interesting post – which reminds me of my grandmother’s very favorite picture of herself: a cheesecake shot of her as a bathing-suited blonde bombshell. It hung in her KITCHEN for the last several decades of her life.
I’m no tall reedy model type (my other grandmother was closer to that in build), I’m a classic compact pinup hourglass like my mom’s mom. Not bad, certainly, but no longer the ideal in mass culture.
I’m made up of west Irish peasant (paternal) and Roma/Anglo-Irish (mother). Mostly I’ve inherited the maternal strain that came through Eastern Europe: slender with boobs, wavy hair, big nose, bad teeth. But as I get old/er I think I might be looking more like my dad which scares the pants off me!
I love the photographs that have survived of my maternal Nana and her sisters – when I was growing up in England they didn’t look like anyone I’d ever seen outside of the movies – a B movie with Ray Milland, a camp-fire and golden earrings.
I´d like to concentrate on the next generation. I have heard people say that my older daughter looks both like me and my husband at the same time. My younger one does look like me, when she is angry ;), but otherwise she differs so much from her sister. She has blond hair and blue eyes. We are both brunettes (my hb and me), and my hb has brown eyes and mine are sort of grey/greenish. I don´t know, did someone switch the babies in the hospital?
You know, I come from a looooong line of apple-shaped women, and am definitely a pear myself! But I have facial features from my mom and gran for sure.
Thanks for sharing these great photos, lady.
Love this post!
I have no idea who I resemble.
There is nothing about my build that is even vaguely reminiscent of either of my grandmothers.
When I was growing up, people would remark that my sister looked like our mom, and my brother looked like our dad. Then they would turn to me and ask who I looked like.
This happened so often that I became convinced that I was accidentally switched at birth. And, as I would tell my mom in no uncertain terms, “I know my real family is rich!”
Great pics, thanks for sharing. Most women on both sides of my family were or are much heavier and larger boned than I turned out. There is one aunt I can think of whom everyone has always said I resemble in stature. Only me and one younger cousin that I can think of are small and thin.
I think it’s a good idea to gather images like this, plus any health info we can on our female forbears. That information can be very helpful if something unexpected crops up, like depression or breast cancer.
Pseu, such an interesting post. I try not to think of my grandmothers’ figures at my age… but there it is – an uphill battle.
I’ve always said I had a peasant constitution; I (and my mother) resemble her father’s side of the family, a mix of Ulster Scots coal miner and Pennsylvania Dutch farmer. Short, short-waisted, broad-shouldered and busty. Surprisingly, I do not have wide hips or much of a posterior.
I have no resemblence whatsoever to her mother’s side of the family; short, delicate-boned, blonde, blue-eyed, petite Scottish women. Sigh.