Wow - a whole family of left handers! That's interesting. Getting to be quite a few of us left handers on this website now. I also have something else in common with you Kay - my husband is called Roy too.
Hi Linda. REf ; left handers Im new on here and see all the messages about left handers, as my aunt Rene told you in her message, Yes i'm the only left handed one - but i did marry Roy who is also left handed and our two kids are left handed aswell - good job really because i cant do anything with my right hand so it was alot easier when they were younger and they chose to hold their pens etc in their left hands. Nice to chat on here. Kay Bicker nee Oliver
Good to see you again today Ian. It was a fantastic day, I really enjoyed it. Interesting to hear that your Dad was left handed and you and your daughter. We do seem to have a lot of left handers in our family. Whether this comes down the Oliver side or the Whitley* side I'm not sure. Maybe I should have asked Shane to ask how many Olivers at the Family Day were left handed.
Bye for now - Linda
*Whitley was the maiden name of Elizabeth - William Augustus's wife.
Hi Linda, Not sure if Elsie Oliver was left handed. Her son John Thompson was naturally left handed, though by training ambidextrous . His son Ian Thompson (me) likewise. The only one of 4 children to be so. My daughter Laura is left handed. The only one of 2 to be so.
That's very interesting. I'm useless at maths but the number of left handers in our branches of the Oliver family seem to be above the average statistics (see Jane's post). I hope this will continue as a topic to see if any more left handers turn up.
That's very interesting. I'll look out for the book mentioned. I think there must have been a reason back in our early existance for some of us to be left handed, in the same way that some of us are academic and some practical, some leaders and others followers. Nature has a way of balancing things for reasons way beyond our comprehension.
It's amazing what different topics family history can lead to.
Long ago, before my life was taken over by genealogy, I was a geneticist. Also, there's a high level of left-handedness in my own family: my mother and her two siblings between them had 12 children of whom five are left-handed and one more (me) ambidextrous. That's quite a bit higher than the rate of about 10% left-handedness usually quoted for the population as a whole. So there are two reasons why I find this topic fascinating.
"Handedness" is connected with which half of your brain is dominant. There's a good book by Chris McManus called 'Right Hand, Left Hand, the origins of Asymmetry in Brains....'. It isn't at all difficult to read. Bits of it can be seen on Google Books. Here I found the following statistics:
-- For a couple who are both right-handed, there's a 9.5% probability (i.e. just under 1 in 10) of having a left-handed child.
-- For a couple where one is right-handed and the other left-handed, there's a 19.5% probability (nearly 1 in 5) of having a left-handed child.
-- For a couple who are both left-handed, there's a 26.1% probability (just over 1 in 4) of having a left-handed child.
From what I have read it seems that 'handedness' is determined quite early in our development, with babies still in the womb showing a preference for which thumb they suck. But it looks like it is probably quite complicated, like a lot of human characteristics, with maybe more than one gene being involved.
I don't remember being forced to write right-handed, so if there was any 'persuasion' at school it can't have been too traumatic. Some other things I've been taught to do I also do right-handed (like knitting). However, I do do most other things left-handed (throwing balls, dialling phone numbers, texting, opening doors, etc.). So in my case environmental factors (teachers) have interacted with the genetic ones to make me either confused or versatile depending on your viewpoint.
(But as for cricket I am hopeless, whether I try right-handed or left-handed!)
Thanks for your responses. It looks as if this Left handedness may have come down through the Oliver line. I look forward to hearing of other left handed Olivers.
Interesting article about the cricket match. Not just the male Olivers that like cricket then! Or was this just a crafty way of catching a husband.
I'm not left handed myself, however my Dad is (his mother, my grandmother was an Oliver - not sure if she was lefthanded!?).
My wife is left handed and her Dad also is (not Olivers obviously).
One thing I thought I would share - it's a tenuous link granted, however, its a warming little story and one I found in the online newspapers - it is Oliver related, its sporting, its got romance and a tiny little bit of relevance to the topic too!
This goes to show that the combination of cricket and romance has been prospering for years! - why? - you'll see Miss E Collins has been bowled out by E Oliver on the above scoresheet in 1888 - well, whether they new it or not when the above cricket match was taking place but these two, on separate sides here, were soon to form their own team, in marriage - Ernest Oliver and Emma Maria Collins we married on Oct 31st 1889.
Sounds like it was fun evening all in all - left handed batting and bowling from the gents obviously being the slight topical link! Thanks, Shane
No left handers in my immediate family, but my niece, she lives in Witney is left handed. When she was signing the register at her wedding it looked as though she was going to stand on her head to do it. She has children and I will ask if they are left or right handed.
My Grandmother, Elizabeth Oliver (1881-1962), was left handed and I am not sure if this comes down from her maternal or paternal side.
I am also left handed, so is my son and my niece. There are also other left handers on my Oliver branch of the family.
I am, therefore, interested to know if any of the other branches of the Oliver family have this left handed 'gene' or whether this has come through from another family line.
In previous generations they sometimes tried to 'correct' this.
