You look just like your mother

The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: What traits run in your family? Which of them did you inherit? Do you have your mother's blue eyes? Your grandfather's stubbornness? Your aunt's skill with knitting needles? Is there a talent for music in your family? Or do you come from a long line of teachers? Have you ever looked at an old photo and recognized your nose on another family member's face? Tell us all about your family traits

Well, I have a resemblance to my mother so I have been told but then I have heard also I look like my father. My curly hair and my blue eyes come from her (although her eyes were bluer than mine). My brother and his eldest son take after my mother's paternal side. My nephew David, before he started to cut his hair extremely short, looked very much like my mother's brother who took after his paternal side of the family. My sister looks more like my father's side of the family.

When my maternal grandparents were married on 11 May 1909, a photograph was taken of the family who attended.

Without looking at the names, you can tell which family the men belong to. The Johnston men have "extremely high foreheads", with just a fringe of hair at the back. Some of my male first cousins definitely have taken after their grandmother's side of the family.

Now one of the traits in the Iles family is the love of music, in particular brass band music. I do not know if this goes back beyond my grandfather. In Genealogists' Parade, I wrote about my grandfather and his part in the brass bands in Owen Sound. Although, I never learned to play a brass instrument, I love to hear brass bands play marches. Many of my uncles and my cousins have played brass instruments. My brother learned to play the trombone and his boys learned an instrument in elementary school. At Iles family reunions, the favourite part for me was when the family band would play. On several occasions, the band played for the public at Sauble Beach.