When my Dad rode up the elevator in our NYC apartment building, he was often asked if he was my father.
I always thought I looked just like him and just like pictures of his mom, except for my nose which came from my mother’s side.

The other day my brother showed me a cool new tool that compares a picture of yourself to pictures of any ancestors whose photos are in the FamilySearch tree. Needless to say I promptly uploaded every ancestor image I could find!

This tool is called Compare-a-Face and is part of the FamilySearch Discovery suite of tools. It is currently featured on the FamilySearch home page when you log in.

I soon discovered that the original photo of me did not get compared to the new ancestor photos that I had just put there, so I uploaded another one. I had to try several different pictures of me to get the result I wanted from the comparison to my Dad’s mom.

Notice that the images are shown in order of how like you they are: the best on the left to least on the right. You click on any little image at the top to get it front and center with a percentage of simularity.

There were significant variations from photo to photo. I was surprised to share looks with anyone on my mother’s side at all. I really do not see where the 10% I have in common with Jacob is. But no ancestor got less than 10% so I am dubious.

However I liked the 17% that I got with my incredibly beautiful maternal grandmother. The nose?

I have always said that I have my great great grandmother Anna Knutsdatter’s eyes. She is the one who looks a bit Amerindian to me, and may be the source of our Finnish and North Artic DNA.

As you can see this was a wonderful way to while away an afternoon!