Two Galloway genetic tales

Talking recently with a Galloway doctor I asked about an old tradition that the family of a man involved in the death of the Wigtown Martyrs had been cursed by his descendants being born with webbed fingers.

He said that he knew the family and instances of webbing in the family are still occurring today. The Wigtown Martyrs were two women who were tied to stakes and drowned by the incoming tide at the Galloway town. They refused to accept the subjugation of belief to Royal decree and today are heroes of the Covenanter movement. The killings took place on May 11, 1685. And one of the men who assisted is said to have been punished by the webbing in the fingers of some of his descendants. Webbing of the fingers is an unusual but not unknown genetic condition which, of course, has nothing to do with superstition.

Another, less serious, feature of another family is their curly hair. Running into one of them recently, I asked her about the curly hair story. “Well, my hair certainly isn't curly,” she laughed. But she did say that it was in many members of the family. Tradition ascribes this to the presence of a West Indian way back in the family history. The man was thought to have been a servant of a wealthy local family that had extensive interests in the West Indian sugar trade. This, of course, was founded on slavery.