A mom wasn’t sure why her toddler didn’t look anything like the rest of the family. However, when she found an old photo from more than 100 years ago, everything made sense in a way. For the mom of three, the unexpected discovery served as a reminder that “genetics are wild.”
A relative sent the photo to Courtney and her husband. Per Newsweek, Courtney and Stephen DeFusco are parents to three sons. They thought their middle son, Brendan, 3, looked nothing like anyone else in the family. Their perspectives changed when Stephen’s aunt sent an old photo to them.
Courtney shared the photo on TikTok and explained that it was taken more than 100 years ago. The photo shows Stephen’s grandmother, and her youngest children: twins named Lucia and Armando. “Lucia [is] my husband’s grandmother,” Courtney wrote on TikTok. “And…Armando her twin brother who died shortly after this picture was taken at the age of 3.”
The couple’s toddler is actually a spitting image of some of his relatives.
When the mom saw the photo, she realized that her toddler looks exactly like his late great-uncle Armando. “He looks identical to my husband’s grandmother and her late twin brother who died from an illness at age 3,” the mom captioned her post on TikTok. Speaking to Newsweek, Courtney said she and her husband noticed the resemblance between their toddler and his great-uncle right away. “Immediately we said, ‘that’s Brendan,'” she told the publication.
Brendan also sees the resemblance.
The parents showed the photo to their toddler. Although he’s only 3 years old, he had a similar reaction. “I have shown Brendan the picture of Lucia and Armando and he said ‘that’s me!'” the mom told Newsweek. “He is only 3 and sees that Armando has the same face as him, so he thinks the black and white photo is him.”
The mom added, “We couldn’t believe how much he looked like him. Even the way his hair falls on his face is the same.”
On TikTok, many people saw it, too.
One person said seeing the photos of Brendan and his late great-uncle “kinda gave [them] chills.”
Others shared that they’ve made similar discoveries. “I have a photo of my husband’s great aunt in 1906,” a second person commented. “She is the absolute COPY of my daughter at the same age.”
A third person wrote: “My brother was the same. Parents couldn’t figure out his look. Saw a picture of a great uncle and bam! Genetics are wild.”
Another person said that there’s “something very beautiful about Mother Nature and how she links distant generations.” They added, “Little Armando being represented 100 years later.”
