Male

Pedigree of the Murray Family for the Left Handedness Trait

LL
ll Female
Ll
lL
Grandpa
Grandma

ll
lL LL
lL ll
Ll Ll ll
Ll
lL
Dad Mom
Aunt Uncle Uncle Aunt

LL LL lL
ll lL lL
Ll Ll Ll
Ll Ll
lL lL
Me Cousin
Sister Cousin Cousin Cousin

The trait of being left-handed in the Murray family seems to stick to the males of the family. The
allele for left-handedness (r) is recessive. It was pretty cool to see that the males in the family were the
ones to retain the trait of being left-handed. I have indicated who has a hidden copy of the recessive
left-handed allele by coloring in half of the shape that represents them. It is interesting that the parents
who have the hidden recessive left-handed allele have one child who is left-handed and the one parent
who is left-handed, neither of his children carried the trait. This must be because in order for two right-
handed parents to have a left-handed child, they must have a hidden gene. I did not run into any
problems creating the chart. I just had to follow up with family members to confirm who had the trait.

After doing research it seems that having a kid born left-handed is at greater odds if the mom is left-
handed, actually a 10% better chance (20% overall). If the father is the only one left-handed, the odds
for his children to be left-handed would be 1-10 (10%). It would be rare, but it can be possible if the
parent were to have a male child.