-----Original Message-----
From: C.B. <[log in to unmask]>


>I would appreciate it if you might extrapolate on what you mean about that?
>(I'm in the U.S. and not familiar with what you mentioned. But I do have
>quite a bit of ancestry from Holland, so am curious about both that and
what
>typical coloring (hair/skin/eye color) you see there?

Hi, C.B.   Both sets of my grandparents are from Holland and are from the
same Northern provence.  Maternal grandmother had very light skin, blue
eyes, flaming red hair.  The other grandmother had dark hair, hazel eyes and
very olive skin.  Grandfathers:  one had light hair and eyes, the other dark
hair and eyes.

Both family trees go back several hundred years, to the crusades, and yet
the two sides of my family look like they are from different countries.  The
dark side appears to have some Mediteranian influence - but it must have
been very long ago.

The light skinned/haired grandparents died in their 70's...diabetes, heart;
they loved potatoes, over cooked veg, white bread, cocoa, milk, sugar, and
meat/gravy.  The dark skinned/haired grandparents lived to 98 and 103; they
ate a totally different diet than the light ones did.

The dark grandparents ALWAYS had a large garden from which they ate a huge
array of vegetables in season; they also had fruit trees.  They ate a lot of
cold water fish and dark breads too.

The children of the light grandparents died in their 30's, 50's and two are
still living in their early 80's but are not healthy.  The children of the
dark grandparents are still going strong into their 80's and are extremely
active...my dad is 86 and acts about 60.

The ancestors of these two Dutch families lived almost side by side for
several hundred years, yet the one family seems to be destined to die out
eventually.

Kath