How tall are you?

[Graye]

For the last two years I've been fascinated by the Victorian period of my family history so I've done lots of research, turned up interesting (and sometimes embarrassing) family photos and followed the twists and turns of who belonged where. Also I managed to lay to rest a few well embroidered myths on the way.

Some of the photos give me a fair idea of the height of people and this has led me on to thinking how we inherit our height genes. I had understood a person was likely to be somewhere between the height of his/her parents but I think this must be outdated thinking. Anyway logically that would mean a gradual shortening of the population whereas to me it looks exactly the opposite.

I'm quite short (5'4") and my ex was 6'. Yet my son AND daughter are both 6'3". Neither of our parents were tall and all my grandmas and great grandmas were around 5'. Grandma Leah (99 this year) swears she was 5'4" when she was younger but is now definitely a fair bit shorter than me.

OH has just been reunited with his own daughter after many years, he last saw her as a child. She is his height, 6'1", her mum was 5'6". My two grand-daughters are projected to be both heading for 6' and probably more.

Do other people follow the normal height trend compared to their parents or is everyone just getting taller for each new generation? I think people may have been a little shorter in earlier centuries through poor diet and healthcare facilities but apparently Edward 1 was 6'1" way back in the 13th century so it's not across the board.

[Millymollymandy]

I'm 5' 9", my mum is (was, she's shrunk!) 5' 8" and my dad was 6' 2". So that makes sense. However my brother is about the same height as me!


My husband is 6' 4", his brother is 6' 2", yet their parents are about 5' 4 and 5' 6".

Go figure!

[Odsox]

Yep, same here.
My grandfather was about 5' 6" and my grandmother a bit shorter.
My mother was 5' 9" and I'm 5' 11".
My wife is 5' 10" and our daughter is 6' 2" and our son is 6' 1"
Our eldest granddaughter is only 13 but she is already about as tall as me, so goodness knows how tall she will end up.

It is a bit strange too that when I was a lad I seemed to be quite tall, certainly taller than the majority of people around at the time. Now I feel a positive midget when I go out with other people towering over me.
If you add in the fact that most people are obese as well, that's a huge increase in body weight around these days

[mrsflibble]

i am very much smaller than my family, possibly due to genetic problems.

I'm 4' 8''

[Milims]

I'm average! 5'4" My mum, sis & maternal grandparents (both of them) all about the same. On my dads side he's the shorty at only 5'11" (was he's shrunk too)His granda was 6'5". Neither of my kids are particularly tall even though their paternal grandmother is about 6' - but their dad was only about 5'10"

[old tree man]

thats wierd, my mum was 5ft 5" may dad was 5ft 11" but my brother was 6ft 6" and i am 6ft but my sons and daughters are all 6fters and jane is 5ft 5", sometime it misses generations i belive but i was told with food being easy to come by these days that future generations my become taller, but a dutch friend of mine says it probably has something to do with both, mind you the dutch are probably some of the tallest people on earth.

[Millymollymandy]

My theory about the Dutch (I lived there too) being tall was cos they rode big bikes with seats up really high and had to stretch to reach the pedals so their legs stretched as they rode bikes from about 6 months old.

Though I think that Aussies are even bigger cos I always felt like a beanpole until I went there and in one office where I worked I was towered over by quite a lot of women! From thereonin (big word ) I never had a hang up about my height ever again. Well it helps having a hubby who I could wear 6" heels with and he'd still be taller.

[Thomzo]

I was told that a boy's eventual height could be estimated by taking the average of his parents' and adding 3 inches. I'm not sure about a girl.

Humans are growing as a species, for a combination of reasons. Better food, particularly at a very early age, is the main factor. It's no coincidence that professional ballet dancers, who have been training since they were toddlers, tend to be small, even if their siblings are larger. They use up far too many calories when they're young to grow tall.

Also, better medicine, central heating, less energy spent on moving around, means that more calories from the child's food can be put into growing. Yes, there is a link between height and obesity, it's caused by the same reasons. Also, it could explain why royalty and nobility were often taller than the lower classes.

I'm 5' 10". My mum was 5' 6" and my Dad was 6' 1" or 2". So I definitely fit the rule but, as with all things natural, there are plenty who don't.

Zoe

[Jerseymum]

Interesting thread.
I'm 5'6" My Dad is 5'8" and Mum 5'3". My sister is 5'4" and my brother is a massive 6'4". Despite dad's modest height and his short parents, we do have a very old photograph of my great, great grandad and we think that is where bro gets it from: gggrandad was supposedly the tallest man in manchester and could light his pipe from the gas lamp. I think my kids are not going to follow the formula from their little-red-books: you can sort of gague where they will end up by looking at their fingers if you see what I mean.
sarah

[Rosendula]

I was told that a boy's eventual height could be estimated by taking the average of his parents' and adding 3 inches. I'm not sure about a girl.

In my parent-held records that I have to hang on to for my daughter it tells you to take the average of the mother's and father's height in cm, then subtract 7cm. After that it's a bit gobbledegook, but I think it's suggesting that the girl's eventual height will be that figure +/- 8.5cm.

I also have here the growth charts for girls, taken from the parent-held records for both my 17YO daughter and my 4YO. Looking at that, at age 16 in 1993 girls were an average of 162.25cm, compared to 16YO girls on the 2006 graph who were 163.25cm. I don't know how accurate these graphs are, and as they're a faint red line on a white background, they're hard to read in this light.

Anyway, I'm 5'5.5". My mother claims she was 5'4.5" before she shrunk, but I think she might have been a little bit taller than this and knocked a bit off to make my father feel better at 5'5. My sister's 5'2 or 5'3 ish. Going down a generation, my son (whose father is, I think, about 5'6) is about 5'7. My 17YO daughter (whose dad is 6') is about 5'2. It's the 17YO that I find amusing because she was always bigger than average as a child, right up to about 12, then everyone else her age had a big growth spurt and she didn't. All her friends seem to tower over her now.

[sleepyowl]

I'm 6'2" which means I'm a midget compared to my mum's side of the family & a giant compared to my dad's I feel like Gulliver at family gatherings

[citizentwiglet]

I'm only 5ft. Actually, a smidgeon under. Four foot, eleven inches and a fair bit. But not enough of a bit. I really am quite tiny in comparison to my friends. OH is 5ft 9.
Both my boys are small for their age (4 and 2), but the eldest has taken a real stretch and has legs up to his armpits.

My mum - 5 ft 3
My Dad - 5ft 10

Paternal Grandmother - 5ft 5
Paternal Grandfather - 5ft 11
Maternal Grandmother - 5ft 1
Maternal Grandfather - 5ft 9

OH's family:
mum - 5 ft 2 (disputable....I'm taller, but she might have shrunk)
Dad - 5ft 7

Paternal Grandmother - 5ft 1
Paternal Grandfather - unknown.
Maternal Grandmother - 5ft 3
Maternal Grandfather - 6ft 2

dDon't know why I've typed all this - thought it might be useful for people doing research into height, LOL!

[Rosendula]

Crikey Twiggy. It sounds like you walk around with a tape measure in your hands. Glad the subject isn't about waist measurements, lol

[contadina]

My mum's short and dad tall and my parents genes seem to have spread rather evenly - myself and four other siblings are tall and the other five are all short . Down here in southern Italy (where butter and meat are rarely eaten and pasta is egg-free) people are considerably shorter than their compatriot northern Italian neighbours.

[homegrown]

My mother is 5'11" my father 6', I'm 6'3" and a bit my brother 6' 1" my sister 5'9" my grandparents were shorter than my mum. My wife is 5'7"ish and already our ten year old is about to surpass her height and our 4yr old is wearing size 7 clothing while our two yr old is wearing between 3 and 5 size depending on country of origin, but he looks like he might catch and surpass his brothers, as for genes who knows I had a friend who was 5'6" while the rest of his family was all around six foot.