What your talking about is called " Genetic Traits ".
There was an experiment ( done with fruit flies I believe ) where certain genetic traits were duplicated after several generations. So yes, there was probably someone exactly like you several generations in your pass family tree.
Sometimes I feel this strong sense of being someone else in another time and place but with the same feelings and thoughts and behavior.
I have researched my family tree and looking at photo's of my great grandfather i was his double.
So yes i believe some one somewhere in your tree is your double
My family history is even murkier. I am adopted, and back when I was adopted medical history wasn't even part of the package. As a matter of fact, adoption was still something that some people didn't approve of or considered strange. There're still things I wonder about, but also realize I probably won't ever know.
Some times i say if you are happy as things are now why dig up the past... More so if its murky
Oh, I'm absolutely happy, jon. That doesn't mean I don't wonder who I might look like or act like, from time-to-time. Many adoptees lack basic knowledge that non-adoptees take for granted. Like anything else, you either learn to live with it or try to do something about it.
Thats true , you often hear that people who have been adopted from an early age tend to take after adopted parents, I can understand how you feel tho its like losing a sense of belonging so to speak.
For me it is more a matter of curiosity. Some people just want to know about their roots. Has nothing to do with whether I'm happy or unhappy. I'm not hoping to dig up some serial killer or anything sensational and hopefully the person that I most resemble from the past is someone with simple common sense and decency.
In order to be a 'twin', one would have to have the exact same genes. That is impossible because every parent contributes half their genes to their offspring. Half the mother, half the father. Some genes are dominant, which is why there can be blue eyed forebearers but one have brown eyes if one of the parents has brown eyes -- or there is blending, hazel eyes when one parent has blue or green eyes and the other has brown.
The US Census is a good place to start, old census reports online. So if you know the county and town a couple of generations back, you may be able to find grandparents and great grandparents. The Mormons keep probably the best genealogical library and their is a good place to start, too.
Recently I checked back for the Ellis Island records of my grandparents' arrival in the early part of the 20th century. The ships logs are posted there. It took some doing, but eventually I found the entries for my grandparents and their cousin and the name and date their ship arrived and they were processed through Ellis Island.
Happy hunting,
PS: The Ellis Island records are also online
