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Inbreeding study reveals why humans don’t have sex with their relatives.
- Thread starter Gypsy Nirvana
- Start date
Maybe that's why Tesla left Croatia and moved to the USA?
There are always exceptions to the average IQ in every nation, some are higher, and some are lower naturally Dog Star.
I don't think it's possible to have a 310 iq,even if he is Tesla.
Regarding lower IQ's, research has found that in America at least 12 chemicals, but probably more, are damaging brains and lowering IQ's, especially those of children. According to the article I've linked too, "Dr. David Bellinger, lead author and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, notes that Americans have collectively forfeited forty-one million IQ*points due to the exposure of lead, mercury and organophosphate pesticides."
Just saying that the West too is doing more than its fair share to dumb down the species.
https://wakeup-world.com/2017/05/31...tors?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=getresponse
Just saying that the West too is doing more than its fair share to dumb down the species.
https://wakeup-world.com/2017/05/31...tors?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=getresponse
There is Croatian matematician,live in present time and have estimated IQ about 190..
https://www.croatiaweek.com/3-croatians-make-30-smartest-people-alive-today-list/
in a World there are folks with IQ more than 200...
https://www.croatiaweek.com/3-croatians-make-30-smartest-people-alive-today-list/
in a World there are folks with IQ more than 200...
Yeah but 300?
This i read on internet... and a data was between 160-310 as those who worked
Lib Tims,ingeneer of electrotechnic on these..
http://www.vijesti.me/techno/ovo-su...udi-u-istoriji-teslin-iq-od-160-do-310-821556
so this was aproximate by those guy who made those research,
actually no one was ever give IQ tests for solving to Tesla..
Lib Tims,ingeneer of electrotechnic on these..
http://www.vijesti.me/techno/ovo-su...udi-u-istoriji-teslin-iq-od-160-do-310-821556
so this was aproximate by those guy who made those research,
actually no one was ever give IQ tests for solving to Tesla..
The study conflicts with data gathered.
Some humans don't have sex with relatives due simply to rejection.
I rated higher than 160 when I took my IQ test in high school.
I may have drank a few of those off in college though.
Some humans don't have sex with relatives due simply to rejection.
I rated higher than 160 when I took my IQ test in high school.
I may have drank a few of those off in college though.
Too many variables to trust iq tests.I only scored above average when I was a kid cause I was malnourished,didn't sleep and was going through severe mental trauma,my dad was in prison and other variables.I'm sure under proper conditions it would of been a lot higher
Go here and do a test shithawk: https://iq-research.info/en/matrix/1
Then get back to us with the result......AND NO CHEATING!
*That's assuming that you are under normal conditions now.
Then get back to us with the result......AND NO CHEATING!
*That's assuming that you are under normal conditions now.
I have by your test 131.2 IQ,its not easy as i smoked a joint while i was test myself..
93.7% of correct answers.. better than average candidate,that is how write here..
but if i wish wider results i need to go to facebook... think those move i will
avoid as by test am enough of inteligent..
https://iq-research.info/en/end That is results...
93.7% of correct answers.. better than average candidate,that is how write here..
but if i wish wider results i need to go to facebook... think those move i will
avoid as by test am enough of inteligent..
https://iq-research.info/en/end That is results...
Think with better concetration and whithouth joint i could hit 140...
after 40 questions i was a bit pissed and was last questions make decisions too fast..
its good for Croat cause a 90 is average here...
so am like hyper genious for those ones..
LOL
king of a castle.. hehehehehe
after 40 questions i was a bit pissed and was last questions make decisions too fast..
its good for Croat cause a 90 is average here...
so am like hyper genious for those ones..
LOLking of a castle.. hehehehehe
Ahhh...Dog Star, that's CHEATING, because we all know that cannabis makes you at least 30% smarter than the average pleb.....lol
Try doing the test when you are STONE COLD SOBER!
....ehhh, then get back to me.
*if you ever are STONE COLD SOBER...that is.
Try doing the test when you are STONE COLD SOBER!
....ehhh, then get back to me.
*if you ever are STONE COLD SOBER...that is.
Did you sees mouses how they swimm when they are stoned and cant found
underwater island to rest a bit on him,spinning around??
Same i was feel with this test smoking alone good sized joint... some questions
are really a brain braking,hard questions..
will made one test in a morning after i wake up good.. whithouth smoke to see
is there a difference in performance.. will post results..
underwater island to rest a bit on him,spinning around??
Same i was feel with this test smoking alone good sized joint... some questions
are really a brain braking,hard questions..
will made one test in a morning after i wake up good.. whithouth smoke to see
is there a difference in performance.. will post results..
Gypsy I clicked that link and did the test myself and I just want to let you guys know that link is bullshit, you have to sign in with a fb profile to get your result and they wont show it until you until you pay them.
Dogstar the result you saw in the right hand side of the page was an example of the 'certificate' that they will email you once you pay them for your results.
Hmmm, thanks for pointing that out Blazeee, a while ago I did partake of some similar test online, it was free without linking to facebook or anything. I thought it was that url. I wonder where it is?
'praps this is the one?: https://www.free-iqtest.net/
Anyway, we seem to be getting a bit off-topic with all this IQ testing, although it is relevant to inbreeding because in some rare instances procreating within a close family group can actually improve mental capabilities, but at the same time leads to a whole range of potential congenital diseases as we saw with the Ashkenazi Jews.
Anyway, lets continue our journey around the world with:
Inbreeding In Eastern Kentucky USA
According to Wikipedia Inbreeding is the reproduction from the mating of two genetically related parents. Inbreeding results in increased homozygosity, which can increase the chances of offspring being affected by recessive or deleterious traits. Inbreeding happens all over the world, but I was shocked when I heard this word being used to describe “mountain people” in the Eastern part of Kentucky. Being that I am from Florida where this word is not used very much, especially not to describe people in a part of the state. So naturally I had a few questions when I heard the word being used to describe this group of people. How true are these accusations, and in how many communities in Eastern Kentucky does inbreeding really exist? How remote do these communities have to be located to consider inbreeding? What are the side effects of inbreeding? What kind of an emotional toll does this take on the children who are inbred?
The first question that comes to my mind when I hear people using inbreeding to describe “mountain people” of Eastern Kentucky is, How true are these accusations?
Believe it or not these accusations are true to a certain extent. Inbreeding in Eastern Kentucky dates way back to when people where first coming to the state of Kentucky in 1750. There were many people who moved here and founded the state but they were secluded from the outer states. Many families were secluded from surrounding towns which then forced them to inbreed. They did not know the mental and physical effects it would have on their children.
Inbreeding mainly consisted of cousins marrying cousins, and occasionally brothers and sisters would get married (this was not as common). As time went on and more people moved to Kentucky, more towns evolved and inbreeding became less common. The percentage of inbreeding in Kentucky had dropped 18% from 1870 to 1930, and then there was a plateau in numbers from 1930 to 1950. Since the 1950’s the numbers have continued to gradually drop each decade. So not all communities is Eastern Kentucky have families that inbreed within their communities like everyone seems to assume. Laws were passed in the late 19th and early 20th century which made marriages, and inbreeding to the first cousin level within family illegal in the bulk of the United States. Nevertheless there are still at least four known communities in Eastern Kentucky that do have families that have inbred children. One particular county still has quite a high inbreeding rate of 95%. These particular children have been reported with severe medical problems.
The second inquiry that comes to my mind would be how remote do these communities have to be located to consider inbreeding? Studies show that 70% of inbred families live in desolate areas that are hard to reach by car, truck, or even horseback. Places like valleys between mountains, difficult and dangerous to reach from the “outside world.” This is why inbreeding/intermarriage occurs.
Families move to these remote areas for the affordable living or sometimes just to start a new life not thinking that other outside families may never follow them to these remote living situations. Then they don’t have the money to travel back out of the hollers or rarely ever want to. Their children then get older and want to save their family name/race, so they inbreed. In most cases inbreeding occurs because the children were never taught any different by their parents, and they don’t know the effects it will late have on their own children’s health. It then turns into a viscous cycle of brothers, sisters, cousins, seconds cousins reproducing the same gene’s over and over. In the other 30% of cases the families do not live in remote locations, but the children do not know any better and live in a community where inbreeding is a common occurrence.
My greatest concern would have to be what are the actual side effects of inbreeding? Now there can be both health and physical side effects with inbreeding. Not all cases have either; it just depends on how closely they are related in the family tree. First-generation inbred individuals like father/daughter, mother/son or brother/sister are more likely to show physical and health defects; such as including reduced fertility, increased chance of genetic disorders, lower birth rate, higher infant mortality, slower growth rate, smaller adult size, and loss of immune system function (Wikipedia). But children with parents that are first cousins may not have any defects, but will get worse if the child decides to inbreed later in life. Side effects or defects occur because both of the parents carry the same or similar ancestral gene. This gives the child a 100% chance of getting this gene twice. This then goes one to create health and physical defects because the child has all of the same genes. From here the child could have a variety of health or physical defects. In one severe case the children’s skin turned blue because of all of the closely related genetics.
Along with medical defects there is also an emotional effect this has on the child’s life. People in general tend to be extremely cruel to one another; in most cases just to make their own self look better. The public stereotypes people in Eastern Kentucky to all be inbred (which we have discovered is not completely true). So you can imagine some of the rude comments adults and other children make about children that are inbred. This is wrong because they are victims of this situation. One anonymous child stated, “I wish everyone would let me live my life, and stop judging because of a choice my parents made.” A young woman named Samantha said, “Why are people so mean? I just don’t understand no one is perfect, so why do they think they can pick on me?” Another young man named Michael said, “I love both my parents. It used to bother me what other people would say, but not anymore. Both of my parents made me who I am today, and I don’t care what other people say.”
Here are some more examples of the cruel comments theses children deal with day to day:
May 28, 2011
Anonymous Person (Forum Called: Everyone on Mud Creek is an inbred, ignorant, jack-ass):
“Everyone on Mud Creek is an inbred, ignorant, redneck, Jack-ass, they are most of the reason why Eastern Kentucky has a bad name for being Hillbillies and dumba55es, if you’re from Mud Creek not sorry you have the option to move but I understand you need to be with your dadbrouncle lol.”
Oct 16, 2011
Justin (Forum Called: Everyone on Mud Creek is an inbred, ignorant, jack-ass):
“Outsider are not welcome in Magoffin and everyone marrys within the family. There is many counties this way, keep the wealth in the family. The family tree has no branches. Parents don’t teach their children NOT to marry kin folk. Then they wonder why so many of these children have mental & physical problems. Can’t marry blood and have normal children.”
Oct 16, 2011
Kel Tech -32 (Forum: Appalachains are INBRED) Somerset, KY
Jeff Wrote:
“Well, joke about it all you want but I’m f@cking offended by this uneducated bullsh!t. I don’t think it’s funny at all & the reason why people continuously poke fun at us & make demoralizing comments about us is because the majority of us allow them to do it. I say we hit them where it hurts and stockpile our coal & place trade embargo’s on those who don’t want our coal & let them figure out what their gonna do without our resources. I am ashamed to read some of these posts. It’s not like they are from NY or LA readers; these posts are from right here in our region…. maybe that’s why we’re losing, maybe we are that stupid? I don’t think we are but a man has a h@ll of a time proving otherwise. Where’s our pride? “
Kel Tech -32 wrote in response:
“Who cares what they think! We live in the garden of eden. Appalachia is the most diverse ecosystem in the world. They live in the cesspool and armpit of the united states. I suppose they are covetous of our ecosystem. We have inbreads and so do they…They are everywhere.”
So as you can see most children who fall victim to inbreeding do carry some kind of emotional burden. Then again for some it doesn’t bother at all they are proud of who they are and who their parents are.
It is a fact that inbreeding does happen across the World, United States, even in Kentucky but inbreeding rates are higher in Eastern Kentucky than in any other part of the state. During the time I spent doing my research I found that the stereotype of everyone in Eastern Kentucky is inbred… is not true! There are at least four known counties that have high percentage rates, but not the entire eastern part of the state. Just goes to show you that you can’t believe everything you hear.
https://kentuckybluepeople.wordpress.com/inbreeding-in-eastern-kentucky-christine-voll/
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The Fugate Family
What is inbreeding? Does it really happen? Are the people weird or “different”? Do they look funny? Inbreeding does happen, and it is commonly associated with “mountain people” or those from the Appalachian region.
Inbreeding can be defined as the reproduction from the mating of two genetically related parents, for example, brother and sister, two cousins, or parent and child. The children can be born extremely healthy, but it can also lead to major health problems, mental defects, and physical flaws. These health problems are the result of recessive genes being passed down through the family, since so many members would carry that recessive gene it is easily passed along. These genes can often lead to major health problems or physical abnormalities in the child.
Typically, inbreeding is associated with the mountain people of eastern Kentucky, and is understandably frowned upon by many people. “Inbreeding is unacceptable. It causes many mutations and that is harmful to the kids and doesn’t give them the full right to a healthy life,” says Madison Merryman, a student at the University of Kentucky. Stereotypes do not always hold true, but there are families that originated in the eastern Kentucky region through inbreeding. In Eastern Kentucky, there are mountains, dirt roads, and family, that’s about it; there are not places they can “go out” and meet other people, they know their family and maybe one or two other families.
These families live in family groups, where the entire family lives in one area, typically within a hollow or holler in the mountain. Inbreeding occurs in these hollers since there is little access in and out. There could be one to three family groups in a holler, but typically they are related in some aspect (such as cousins). The best known inbred family in Eastern Kentucky is the Fugate family, also known as the Kentucky Smurf Family, who lived among the Combses, Smiths, Ritchies, and Stacys, all kin to one another.
French orphan Martin Fugate traveled to the United States in the early 1800s to obtain a land grant and improve his life. He didn’t want to stay in France since he felt like an outsider and was never adopted as a child. He later settled in Troublesome Creek with his red headed American bride, Elizabeth Smith. The two settled and had seven children, all of whom inherited Martin and Elizabeth’s rare recessive gene. Four of the children visibly showed this gene with their blue skin. Martin himself had dark blue skin
“’It was almost purple,’ his [son] recalls.” (Trost) The gene was continued to be passed down through the generations, although few children showed it. The fact that this occurred at all was astonishing, it has to mean that Elizabeth also carried this extremely rare gene, which would give her the same blue tint. It was never proven that Martin and Elizabeth were blue since there was no photographic evidence. The only photos taken of the couple, and later family, were in black and white. As seen above, there have been several paintings done, but they are not reliable since they could have been fabricated.
Levi Fugate married his first cousin, Hannah, a member of the Ritchie family, and the couple had eight children together, including Luna. Luna was born blue like her great grandfather Martin. She was the first to show this gene in several years and the only one out of her brothers and sisters. Her nieces and nephews were born years later, many of them blue, because the Fugates had no way out of Troublesome Creek.
“The railways were not laid until the 1912’s and roads to the hollows weren’t built until thirty or forty years later,” stated Cathy Trost in the article “Blue People of Kentucky”. Often times travel was too difficult by car or truck, but also by horseback, so these families truly had no other option but to remain in the holler and marry cousins.
By the time Luna Fugate was born, there had been progress made in her holler and the roads were travelable. After she reached adulthood, Luna was able to find a man that was not part of her family tree, breaking the gene pool, or so they thought. The Fugates had been blue for nearly 162 years, and people did not think a lot of it since there has always been at least one blue member in the family. They lived normal lives, “most lived to their 80s and 90s without serious illness associated with the skin discoloration.” (Trost) Doctors rarely paid visits to the hills, hollers and hollows, so there was not a real reason given for their blueness, there were different theories, including “heart disease, lung disorder, or ‘their blood is too close to their skin,’” (Trost) but it was never proven or tested.
The blue tint of the Fugates was nearly forgotten about until 1982, when Benjamin Stacy, better known as Benjy, was born. Benjy was raced from Hazard to Lexington right after his birth, two days of tests were run, and there was no explanation for the “bruised” appearance of the child’s skin. Hematologists from all over the state came to see the baby
and take a guess at what was wrong with him. The doctors were preparing a blood transfusion for Benjy when his father spoke up, mentioning Luna, Benjy’s great grandmother. What they did find strange though, is the fact that the blue left that babies skin after a few weeks in the hospital. The only time Benjy’s skin appeared blue was when he was crying, and often times, doctors could be seen trying to make the child cry. Doctors concluded that the blue color of the baby’s skin was the result of a generic disorder from years past, known as methemoglobinemia.
The test results came back, and it turns out Rachel, Patrick, and Benjy all suffer from methemglobinemia, inherited through a recessive gene passed on through inbreeding.
“Methemoglobinemia is a blood disorder in which an abnormal amount of methemoglobin — a form of hemoglobin — is produced. Hemoglobin is the molecule in red blood cells that distributes oxygen to the body. Methemoglobin cannot release oxygen. In methemoglobinemia, the hemoglobin is unable to release oxygen effectively to body tissues,” explains the A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia in their article on methemoglobinemia. In simple terms, there is a lack of oxygen in the blood stream, resulting in the blood’s inability to release oxygen to the tissue, like skin.
This lack of oxygen makes the skin color appear blue instead of pink like it should be. The skin does not appear completely blue in most cases though, it is typically focused in one area. Johanna Morrison, a nursing student at the University of Kentucky explains, “Methe
moglobinemia is a rare genetic disorder, passed down through families, requiring two carriers of the recessive gene to see its effects. The disease causes a lack of oxygen in the blood stream, making it appear blue. There are some extreme cases, such as the Fugate family, but typically it only effects the nails, lips and eyelids.” However, the disease “can also be acquired as a result of chemical exposure, antibiotics and anesthetics. Aside from skin turning blue, symptoms also include shortness of breath, fatigue, dizziness, and fainting. More extreme cases may result in heart arrhythmia, seizures, coma and death, Michelle Rasey writes.
There was no real explanation what this disorder was, until another person kin to the Fugate family, went to the doctor. Rachel and Patrick Ritchie, brother and sister with no intimate relations, went to a small county health clinic in Hazard on a bitterly cold afternoon. When they walked in, Nurse Ruth Pendergrass was caught off guard and “scared to death!” (Trost) The siblings caught the nurse off guard, because they were blue, like their ancestors. She thought that they were blue because it was cold outside; she realized this could not have been the case, since the color never faded while they were waiting to be seen. Pendergrass called hematologist Dr. Madison Cawein, a Lexington native, who was known for being interested in strange diseases. Dr. Cawein’s first impression of the Ritchies… “’They were bluer’n hell!’” (Trost)
He began running tests, concluding there was no heart disease in either of them and there was nothing wrong with their lungs. Dr. Cawein began charting out their family tree, and soon realized, they were decedents of the Fugates of Troublesome Creek. Medical tests were run, but none of them showed the real reason why they were blue. ‘”They were really embarrassed about being blue,’ [Dr. Cawein] said. ‘Patrick was all hunched down in the hall. Rachel was leaning against the wall. They wouldn’t come into the waiting room. You could tell how much it bothered them to be blue.’” (Trost)
Dr. Cawein set out on the difficult task of figuring out the cause of the Fugate’s blue tint, “most people with methemoglobinemia acquire it through health-threatening circumstances, such as heart and artery defects, nitrate poisoning (“Blue baby
Dr. Cawein was determined to help the Ritchie’s with their emotional pain and help them to appear “normal” in the eyes of society. He and Pendergrass ventured out to the homes of the blue families with his black medical bag. Dr. Cawein took blood samples of several family members, including Zachariah and his aunt Bessie (both from a small, almost dead, mining town, known as Hardburly), before coming up with the dosage he felt would be most appropriate. After a few weeks, he injected Patrick and Rachel with 100 mg of methylene blue.
This ironic cure required injecting blue into the veins of the already blue people. Once it set it, the blue began fading from their skin, allowing temporary relief from the emotional discomfort of being blue. The problem with methylene blue is it is extremely temporary and usually leaves the body through urine, Dr. Cawein left pills for the family to take daily to deal with it. However, many of the blue family members wouldn’t come out of seclusion to receive treatment, and there have no reliable sightings of the Fugates since Benjy’s birth.syndrome”) or respiratory problem,”
Jeffery Holland notes in his blog, Blue People of Kentucky. It was clear the disease was passed on through the family’s inbreeding practice, but where did it come from originally? If Dr. Cawein was able to figure out the root of the disease, he would have an easier time treating the family members he was working with.
As the family began moving out of the holler, there were less and less blue people being born until Benjy was born. Benjamin Fugate was one of the last blue Fugates born, although the gene continues to be passed from generation to generation, the chances of the effects being seen are decreasing with each new generation. (There is only a twenty five percent chance of the child being blue, as long as their parent does not carry two recessive genes.) Benjy had dark blue skin when he was born, but it started to fade a few weeks after he was born, unlike the rest of his kin. The color remaining only appears in Benjy’s lips and nails, unless he is very mad or cold, then the rest of his skin will get a blue tint to it as well. Hilda Stacy, his mother, is very protective of her son, when people would come to question the blue family history, she would get very defensive and protective, turning them away and ordering them off of her property. Hilda is tired of her family only being associated with inbreeding, because they have much more to offer to society than their rarity.
After reaching adulthood, Benjy Stacy and his family left the state of Kentucky and went to Alaska to live a quiet life. Once the left Kentucky, people have not heard much from him and do not know anything of his life or know if his children have the same blue tint he is cursed with. The strange thing is the Stacy family is not the only blue family in Alaska.
If it was not for a blue Inuit family, Dr. Madison Cawein would never have known to use the methylene blue to treat the Ritchies and Fugates. Dr. Cawein used the research of Dr. Scott’s research, “reported in a 1960 edition of the “Journal of Clinical Investigation,” [which] isolated the exact mechanism of action for methemoglobinemia, a missing enzyme in red blood cells. The absence of this essential enzyme, called diaphoresis, allowed the deoxygenated components of red blood cells to build up in the body, giving it a blue cast.” (Rasey) This family receives very little attention since they are so secluded from society, but it goes to show, there are other people that inherited this rare gene through inbreeding, that are not from the state of Kentucky.
The practice of inbreeding is not very common in the state, it only occurs in very isolated areas, where there is no access outside of the hills, hollers and hollows. This practice should not be stereotyped with Kentucky since it isn’t common practice. Emily Nelson, a student at the University of Kentucky feels the fact that there are blue people in the state is terrible, because it only stereotypes us further. There are the few rare cases that occur and the even rarer cases of disease that is passed through the family.
The Fugates are a rare case, but every day they have to suffer with the pain and humiliation of being blue, or other physical or mental effects, and will always be associated with inbreeding.
https://kentuckybluepeople.wordpress.com/the-fugate-family-paige-disponette/
What is inbreeding? Does it really happen? Are the people weird or “different”? Do they look funny? Inbreeding does happen, and it is commonly associated with “mountain people” or those from the Appalachian region.
Inbreeding can be defined as the reproduction from the mating of two genetically related parents, for example, brother and sister, two cousins, or parent and child. The children can be born extremely healthy, but it can also lead to major health problems, mental defects, and physical flaws. These health problems are the result of recessive genes being passed down through the family, since so many members would carry that recessive gene it is easily passed along. These genes can often lead to major health problems or physical abnormalities in the child.
Typically, inbreeding is associated with the mountain people of eastern Kentucky, and is understandably frowned upon by many people. “Inbreeding is unacceptable. It causes many mutations and that is harmful to the kids and doesn’t give them the full right to a healthy life,” says Madison Merryman, a student at the University of Kentucky. Stereotypes do not always hold true, but there are families that originated in the eastern Kentucky region through inbreeding. In Eastern Kentucky, there are mountains, dirt roads, and family, that’s about it; there are not places they can “go out” and meet other people, they know their family and maybe one or two other families.
These families live in family groups, where the entire family lives in one area, typically within a hollow or holler in the mountain. Inbreeding occurs in these hollers since there is little access in and out. There could be one to three family groups in a holler, but typically they are related in some aspect (such as cousins). The best known inbred family in Eastern Kentucky is the Fugate family, also known as the Kentucky Smurf Family, who lived among the Combses, Smiths, Ritchies, and Stacys, all kin to one another.
French orphan Martin Fugate traveled to the United States in the early 1800s to obtain a land grant and improve his life. He didn’t want to stay in France since he felt like an outsider and was never adopted as a child. He later settled in Troublesome Creek with his red headed American bride, Elizabeth Smith. The two settled and had seven children, all of whom inherited Martin and Elizabeth’s rare recessive gene. Four of the children visibly showed this gene with their blue skin. Martin himself had dark blue skin
“’It was almost purple,’ his [son] recalls.” (Trost) The gene was continued to be passed down through the generations, although few children showed it. The fact that this occurred at all was astonishing, it has to mean that Elizabeth also carried this extremely rare gene, which would give her the same blue tint. It was never proven that Martin and Elizabeth were blue since there was no photographic evidence. The only photos taken of the couple, and later family, were in black and white. As seen above, there have been several paintings done, but they are not reliable since they could have been fabricated.
Levi Fugate married his first cousin, Hannah, a member of the Ritchie family, and the couple had eight children together, including Luna. Luna was born blue like her great grandfather Martin. She was the first to show this gene in several years and the only one out of her brothers and sisters. Her nieces and nephews were born years later, many of them blue, because the Fugates had no way out of Troublesome Creek.
“The railways were not laid until the 1912’s and roads to the hollows weren’t built until thirty or forty years later,” stated Cathy Trost in the article “Blue People of Kentucky”. Often times travel was too difficult by car or truck, but also by horseback, so these families truly had no other option but to remain in the holler and marry cousins.
By the time Luna Fugate was born, there had been progress made in her holler and the roads were travelable. After she reached adulthood, Luna was able to find a man that was not part of her family tree, breaking the gene pool, or so they thought. The Fugates had been blue for nearly 162 years, and people did not think a lot of it since there has always been at least one blue member in the family. They lived normal lives, “most lived to their 80s and 90s without serious illness associated with the skin discoloration.” (Trost) Doctors rarely paid visits to the hills, hollers and hollows, so there was not a real reason given for their blueness, there were different theories, including “heart disease, lung disorder, or ‘their blood is too close to their skin,’” (Trost) but it was never proven or tested.
The blue tint of the Fugates was nearly forgotten about until 1982, when Benjamin Stacy, better known as Benjy, was born. Benjy was raced from Hazard to Lexington right after his birth, two days of tests were run, and there was no explanation for the “bruised” appearance of the child’s skin. Hematologists from all over the state came to see the baby
and take a guess at what was wrong with him. The doctors were preparing a blood transfusion for Benjy when his father spoke up, mentioning Luna, Benjy’s great grandmother. What they did find strange though, is the fact that the blue left that babies skin after a few weeks in the hospital. The only time Benjy’s skin appeared blue was when he was crying, and often times, doctors could be seen trying to make the child cry. Doctors concluded that the blue color of the baby’s skin was the result of a generic disorder from years past, known as methemoglobinemia.
The test results came back, and it turns out Rachel, Patrick, and Benjy all suffer from methemglobinemia, inherited through a recessive gene passed on through inbreeding.
“Methemoglobinemia is a blood disorder in which an abnormal amount of methemoglobin — a form of hemoglobin — is produced. Hemoglobin is the molecule in red blood cells that distributes oxygen to the body. Methemoglobin cannot release oxygen. In methemoglobinemia, the hemoglobin is unable to release oxygen effectively to body tissues,” explains the A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia in their article on methemoglobinemia. In simple terms, there is a lack of oxygen in the blood stream, resulting in the blood’s inability to release oxygen to the tissue, like skin.
This lack of oxygen makes the skin color appear blue instead of pink like it should be. The skin does not appear completely blue in most cases though, it is typically focused in one area. Johanna Morrison, a nursing student at the University of Kentucky explains, “Methe
moglobinemia is a rare genetic disorder, passed down through families, requiring two carriers of the recessive gene to see its effects. The disease causes a lack of oxygen in the blood stream, making it appear blue. There are some extreme cases, such as the Fugate family, but typically it only effects the nails, lips and eyelids.” However, the disease “can also be acquired as a result of chemical exposure, antibiotics and anesthetics. Aside from skin turning blue, symptoms also include shortness of breath, fatigue, dizziness, and fainting. More extreme cases may result in heart arrhythmia, seizures, coma and death, Michelle Rasey writes.
There was no real explanation what this disorder was, until another person kin to the Fugate family, went to the doctor. Rachel and Patrick Ritchie, brother and sister with no intimate relations, went to a small county health clinic in Hazard on a bitterly cold afternoon. When they walked in, Nurse Ruth Pendergrass was caught off guard and “scared to death!” (Trost) The siblings caught the nurse off guard, because they were blue, like their ancestors. She thought that they were blue because it was cold outside; she realized this could not have been the case, since the color never faded while they were waiting to be seen. Pendergrass called hematologist Dr. Madison Cawein, a Lexington native, who was known for being interested in strange diseases. Dr. Cawein’s first impression of the Ritchies… “’They were bluer’n hell!’” (Trost)
He began running tests, concluding there was no heart disease in either of them and there was nothing wrong with their lungs. Dr. Cawein began charting out their family tree, and soon realized, they were decedents of the Fugates of Troublesome Creek. Medical tests were run, but none of them showed the real reason why they were blue. ‘”They were really embarrassed about being blue,’ [Dr. Cawein] said. ‘Patrick was all hunched down in the hall. Rachel was leaning against the wall. They wouldn’t come into the waiting room. You could tell how much it bothered them to be blue.’” (Trost)
Dr. Cawein set out on the difficult task of figuring out the cause of the Fugate’s blue tint, “most people with methemoglobinemia acquire it through health-threatening circumstances, such as heart and artery defects, nitrate poisoning (“Blue baby
Dr. Cawein was determined to help the Ritchie’s with their emotional pain and help them to appear “normal” in the eyes of society. He and Pendergrass ventured out to the homes of the blue families with his black medical bag. Dr. Cawein took blood samples of several family members, including Zachariah and his aunt Bessie (both from a small, almost dead, mining town, known as Hardburly), before coming up with the dosage he felt would be most appropriate. After a few weeks, he injected Patrick and Rachel with 100 mg of methylene blue.
This ironic cure required injecting blue into the veins of the already blue people. Once it set it, the blue began fading from their skin, allowing temporary relief from the emotional discomfort of being blue. The problem with methylene blue is it is extremely temporary and usually leaves the body through urine, Dr. Cawein left pills for the family to take daily to deal with it. However, many of the blue family members wouldn’t come out of seclusion to receive treatment, and there have no reliable sightings of the Fugates since Benjy’s birth.syndrome”) or respiratory problem,”
Jeffery Holland notes in his blog, Blue People of Kentucky. It was clear the disease was passed on through the family’s inbreeding practice, but where did it come from originally? If Dr. Cawein was able to figure out the root of the disease, he would have an easier time treating the family members he was working with.
As the family began moving out of the holler, there were less and less blue people being born until Benjy was born. Benjamin Fugate was one of the last blue Fugates born, although the gene continues to be passed from generation to generation, the chances of the effects being seen are decreasing with each new generation. (There is only a twenty five percent chance of the child being blue, as long as their parent does not carry two recessive genes.) Benjy had dark blue skin when he was born, but it started to fade a few weeks after he was born, unlike the rest of his kin. The color remaining only appears in Benjy’s lips and nails, unless he is very mad or cold, then the rest of his skin will get a blue tint to it as well. Hilda Stacy, his mother, is very protective of her son, when people would come to question the blue family history, she would get very defensive and protective, turning them away and ordering them off of her property. Hilda is tired of her family only being associated with inbreeding, because they have much more to offer to society than their rarity.
After reaching adulthood, Benjy Stacy and his family left the state of Kentucky and went to Alaska to live a quiet life. Once the left Kentucky, people have not heard much from him and do not know anything of his life or know if his children have the same blue tint he is cursed with. The strange thing is the Stacy family is not the only blue family in Alaska.
If it was not for a blue Inuit family, Dr. Madison Cawein would never have known to use the methylene blue to treat the Ritchies and Fugates. Dr. Cawein used the research of Dr. Scott’s research, “reported in a 1960 edition of the “Journal of Clinical Investigation,” [which] isolated the exact mechanism of action for methemoglobinemia, a missing enzyme in red blood cells. The absence of this essential enzyme, called diaphoresis, allowed the deoxygenated components of red blood cells to build up in the body, giving it a blue cast.” (Rasey) This family receives very little attention since they are so secluded from society, but it goes to show, there are other people that inherited this rare gene through inbreeding, that are not from the state of Kentucky.
The practice of inbreeding is not very common in the state, it only occurs in very isolated areas, where there is no access outside of the hills, hollers and hollows. This practice should not be stereotyped with Kentucky since it isn’t common practice. Emily Nelson, a student at the University of Kentucky feels the fact that there are blue people in the state is terrible, because it only stereotypes us further. There are the few rare cases that occur and the even rarer cases of disease that is passed through the family.
The Fugates are a rare case, but every day they have to suffer with the pain and humiliation of being blue, or other physical or mental effects, and will always be associated with inbreeding.
https://kentuckybluepeople.wordpress.com/the-fugate-family-paige-disponette/
troutman
Seed Whore
The banjo dude on the porch from that Burt Reynolds movie called Deliverance is pretty inbred looking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsC4kf6x_Q0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsC4kf6x_Q0
