I supposedly have 1/16th American Indian ancestry myself, on my mother’s side, yet my mother and sister had blond hair and blue eyes. I have brown hair (partially gray now) and brown eyes.
It depends on which genes are passed down. Evonne Goolagong, the tennis player of decades ago, was supposedly Australian aborigine in race (must have been mixed), but she didn’t look much like an aborigine to me. http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/evonne-goolagong-of-australia-at-wimbledon-circa-july-1971-goolagong-picture-id462775778
Australian aborigines — http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/01/28/0703198F000005DC-0-image-m-6_1422446578540.jpg
Yes, fathers and children often look alike (I don’t look like my parents, though, except in being very tall and skinny), but it’s a chance draw when genes are distributed to the next generation. For instance, brothers on average share half their genes. It’s by one half less likely — but quite possible — for a first cousin to look more like a person than one’s own child.
Then it’s by one half less likely again for the next generation (if I’m not mistaken in my calculations about genes). In any case we’re not talking about extremely remote chances, just something slightly less likely than what would be expected.
I suppose we’ve reached the end of the road. Thank you for the discussion!
As off-putting as it may sound, traits and appearance are “fixed” via inbreeding in people just as any other mammal selectively bred whether due to unintentional genetic bottlenecks or due to other considerations, sometimes this has been intentional as in the instance of royals or people of great wealth looking to keep inheritance in the family. Those descendants can look alarmingly like the very old portrait hanging on the wall, particularly among males. I’ve mentioned my late grandmother’s attorney and his resemblance. I also had friends in my teens, identical twins, who looked exactly like their 2nd great grandfather whose portrait was hanging on the mantel of their parents’ home. I’d think this would be a distinct possibility among descendants of First Families and other early settlers, they’d have been there for 150 years or more by the era in question.
