The Most Inbred Family: how Inbred are the Whittakers? 

My grandmothers were sisters. My parents insisted that 'lots of cousins marry and have children' and dismissed any risk to their children's health as 'old wives tales'. Despite this and despite my father having three thumbs, they went ahead and had my sister. My mother admitted that within weeks she knew my sister had sight problems; she would go on to be registered as blind. Some four years later I was conceived and born. Amongst other things I have a deformed ribcage, developmental defects and mental health problems. My sister died on 16/10/2019 from bowel cancer. Being blind she didn't know that she had symptoms. Thanks Mum and Dad, you ruined two lives just because you wouldn't listen to what the family were telling you.

Since the original boys were not only brothers, but identical twins, wouldn't that make the percentage higher? When their kids married or would be less like marrying your cousin and more like marrying your half sibling.

I think the implication that Timmy's father is either his grandfather or uncle, as if it was a cousin no one would have batted an eye.

Me at 11 PM: “Ok one more video and I’m going to bed” Me 3 hours later:

When I was 3 until I was about 5, I had a crush on my male cousin who 6 or 8, and we'd hold hands, but when I was about 5, my Momma told me about inbreeding, and what could happen in terms that I'd understand. Childhood innocence is one thing, but to commit full blown inbreeding as an adult, and know that you're doing it is just sick.

Actually the biggest issue here isn’t that two consecutive sets of first cousins got married (that’s bad, but not enough to produce these results). No, the real problem is Henry and John were identical twins meaning their kids were genetically the equivalent of half siblings. This fast tracked the issue massively.

I know a young woman who was SA’d by her own bio-father and had a baby at age 12. She decided to relinquish her baby to an open adoption. I’m close with the adoptive mom and the poor little girl has tons of neurological, psychological, and physiological problems due to the non consensual incest in her birth family.

It's very sad the children have to suffer the lustful stupidity of their parents and relatives.

Depending on the type of twins the original fathers were, John and Gracie should actually be treated as half siblings - not cousins. The twins DNA is near 100% (you can think of this as one guy that had kids with 2 women, and then those 2 children - John and Gracie- got married). That would make their number 25%, not 12.5%.

I can't even grasp how they manage to find others willing to have children with them at this point.

I am fascinated by genetics. My dad, the rounder, had a child with a girlfriend, while married to our mother. My dad tried to pawn off his new baby by saying his friend (who was also married, like my dad was) got a girl "in a family way" and could our mom take in this baby. There were already 6 of us and we were pretty poor. But, my mom who loved children and was a great parent, said "yes." That plan fell thru when the GF decided to keep the baby and pawn it off as her husband's. Fast forward 50 years and the girlfriend was close to death and gave a a note to our half-sister saying our dad =was HER dad. We all had went to the same small school, did all the sports together, etc. After high school, my half sister was also my oldest sister's sister-in law-having both married brothers of the same family. (!) This was before they knew they were half-sisters. The new sister and my sister took DNA tests and YEP, it was true. I asked the GF in her dying days "what if my brother had started to date your daughter? (our half-sister!). She said, "Oh, then, I would have had to tell everyone the truth." Our dad had died when we were all teenagers so I did not "get to" confront him on his behavior...But, when my mom found out (at 86 years old) her response was this: "Tell the GF (I traveled out of state to talk to her before she passed) that we all love her and forgive her and all is well." So I delivered this news which was accepted with much weeping and gratitude. Then, my mother said, "Let's have a party and welcome her daughter to the family....nothing was her fault!"

Being first cousins by the fathers who were identical twins makes it much worse than if those fathers were just regular siblings. Wouldn't that make their cosanguinity higher than 18%? You didn't emphasize that.

I'm really surprised you didn't mention that because Henry and John were IDENTICAL twins, their children would, genetically, be half siblings. Not first cousins. So that boosts the family's percentage up significantly, since John and Gracie are actually half siblings. That's likely the reason for all the genetic issues. Just two generations of first cousin marriage isn't unusual and is usually fine.

I knew a friend who had cancer at a very young age and it was sad cause almost everyone in her mom's side died of various kinds of cancer. They made some genetic tests and it proved some of their ancestors came from an incestous relationship, so it made the cancer gene much stronger than it would be in a normal family with only one parent carrying that gene. :(

My heart breaks for the people suffering form this... and also I'm reminded of the town my parents moved us to when I was a teenager. It was about a 45 minute drive from the nearest major population center and had only around 300 people living there. Prior to the addition of the street we lived on, too, almost every resident in the city belonged to just one of two family groups. Things were this bad there, though, since people from this town would go to school in the city (the one about 45 minutes away) and so had more of an opportunity to meet and fall in love with people they weren't related to... but there were a LOT of people who also just married someone from the other family in town.

My high ass was watching this while making something to eat, I had to quit halfway through due to the subject matter making me lose my appetite.

You messed up the calculations. John and Gracie might have been first cousins, but they were genetically half-siblings because their fathers were twins. This is just like John and Gracie having the same father.

I must admit I was surprised by how quickly the inbreeding gets out of hand. I always thought that a single cousin-marriage was pretty harmless genetically speaking, that it didn't start to become a problem until it'd been done for a few successive generations, but the video suggests that the child of the first generation of inbreeding was already strongly affected. Regardless, it is astonishing that things were able get this bad within only two generations. Also, I realise that this video skirts around the possibility as there is no evidence to support it, but I do wonder about what Timmy's potential inbreeding coefficient could be? If, best case scenario, he is the product of cousins, or, worst case scenario, of siblings, or parent and child.

HE BROKE DOWN THE FAMILY TREE & I STILL COULDN'T KEEP UP

Lorraine, Timmy's mom was actually raped and they dont know who Timmy's father is. Also Ray and Timmy and all of them can for the most part understand almost everything people are saying, they have feelings too. Lorraine, Timmy and all of the Whittaker's can actually speak except for Ray. They are actually pretty smart and most of then know what is going on, they just cant communicate as well as some of their other siblings. But you are right about the healthy problems, almost all the Whittaker's have heart problems, Ray has bad knees, and have weak immune systems. Lorraine can speak but for the most part doesn't as well as Timmy. Almost all of the Whittaker siblings went to school, but most stopped at highschool or before, and Timmy actually graduated highschool. They can go shopping like normal and go for walks. They are actually close with their neighbours and they get along well with people in general. Larry has a daughter, Kenneth has a stepdaughter, Lorraine has Timmy, Betty never had kids or got married but she said she likes taking care of her family, They have other siblings and most of them are living relatively "normal" lives. But it is sad that they had to be born like this and its not fair they didnt ask for this. If you go to Mark's channel you can learn more facts about their life and how they are, he set up donations for them and helps them, they are doing okay. I just dont like how people hate on them for their parents mistakes, they didnt do anything wrong and are still human just like you and I. P.s. I DO NOT AGREE WITH INCEST NOR DO I THINK ITS OKAY BUT I JUST DONT LIKE THE HATE

Oh the one eye thing. When I moved to Kentucky, and enrolled my son in school, was the first time I'd ever seen anyone born with one eye and I stared. There were a few. All these kids were amazingly polite about abnormal things because they were used to it, and this was part of their culture to be polite about inbred problems. I asked one of the teachers what was why some of the kids had this, and she said, "Well he's from Gilpin Holler." Like that explained it all. It only took a year to finally learn why that was a valid explanation.

When I was in grad school, I was volunteering in an organization, which helped people with intellectual disability and developmental delay. Met a family that came from the Kavkaz mountains region. Apparently, inbreading was completely normal and was encouraged as a tool to prevent assimilation with other relegions. So I was working with this family - the dad was mom's uncle, the brother of her father. The mom herself was a bit slow and too innocent for a 30 y.o. Their oldest son, 7 y.o. had a tiny head and his brain was lacking white matter. He was very slow, and wasn't even speaking, just repeating other words. He had vision impairment and severe emotional issues. Despite all this, they decided to have another child. Their baby girl was born with a split lip and wasn't meeting her developmental milestones by 5 months. The father told me he does not belive in genetics and his children are like this, because his wife wasn't faithfull enough.

I love how far into detail you go over one of the most misfortunate circumstances of conception, I could watch this sort of stuff for hours 😅

Soft White Underbelly is the original poster of The Whitaker's .

Identical twins are formed from a single zygote dividing into two. Identical twins are genetically the same person. The offspring of siblings marrying siblings are called double first cousins. Their parents are siblings-in-law, their parents are their aunt/uncle by marriage and blood and they cannot marry because they are considered full-siblings. I am technically a twin because my sister was born 20 minutes after me. We were conceived 2 weeks apart based on our development.

If the twins Henry and John were identical, would that be the same as John and Gracie not only be cousins but half brother / sister genetically?

A fascinating video upload. Many people are now choosing to remain within small social networks. Can see how situations like these will continue to occur and certainly won't go away anytime soon.

as a first time watcher, the way this video opens is wild lmao

Timmy's inbreeding coefficient could've been 65.6%, 56.3%, 28.1%, or 15.6%. Timmy's mum's inbreeding coefficient is actually 31.25%, due to John and Gracie being half siblings (genetically).

People brought up the issue about the brothers being identical twins but there's something else that I wonder. He picked a generation to start with and assumes 0%. HOWEVER, without knowing the family history PRIOR to the selected "first generation" we can't possibly know the starting genetic inbreeding. In all likelyhood there was already generations before that with higher inbreeding.

You showed Freddie several times while you were talking about Ray. Freddie passed away between 2004 and 2020.

I knew a family that, looking back, could have the potential of inbreeding happening. They were very recluse and didn’t live the best life and their children expressed very similar traits. They had six children (adults and teens when I knew them), one was from a different father and was fairly independent but the other five seemed strangely similar. There were two girls who were identical twin and expressed severe autistic traits and learning difficulties and three boys, two of which expressed the same learning difficulties and autistic traits as their sisters, one looking nearly identical to one brother despite not being twins and both sharing Prader-Willi syndrome. I didn’t think about it at first but seeing videos on the Whittakers, there’s a possibility.

My daughter discovered she was married to a cousin we never knew about. She filled for divorce and moved out

Wouldn't the consanguinity be higher given that the two brothers were identical twins?

My wife is from Newfoundland where there is a significant amount of inbreeding in its genetics from the past due to communities being very isolated. Not the kind of inbreeding that causes the Whittaker kind of issues but the kind where auto immune conditions like Psoriasis and Exczema are more common than in other populations. Then two of her cousins married each other. The whole family was really against it and it caused a huge scandal. Well those two wouldn't listen and they married anyway. They had one kid who was so mentally handicapped that it effectively prevented any more kids and destroyed their marriage. Like when there's a sort of low level gene recyling going on then two first cousins have a kid, the inbreeding cooeficient must stack up in a big hurry.

One thing the video doesn’t take into account is that, because Henry and John were identical twins, John and Gracie should be considered half brothers, and not first cousins. Thus, the inbreesing coeficient is actually higher

Now I have nothing against being disabled mentally or physically, especially considering I’m mentally disabled myself. But it’s really cruel to knowingly have disabled children while also knowing you won’t be able to meet their accessibility needs. That’s setting ppl up for failure.

This was a sick roast dude lmaoooo

So sad what happened. Ray and Timmy are the sweetest things I love this family

If John and Henry were identical twins, the factor would be much higher.

I was a special education student teacher specializing in mental retardation (proper terminology of the era) in Appalachia VA in 1975-6. There was a high incidence of a type of intellectual deficiency termed ‘cultural familial’, meaning due to the deprived circumstances and culture plus inbreeding. Some classes had brother / sister pairs. Daughters were regularly pushed into prostitution by parents upon their first menstrual cycle and were victimized also by their male relations including fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins, and grandfathers. There was no recourse. We’re talking about back hills folks living in basic cabins without electricity and plumbing. The public elementary schools had donated clothing rooms and showers as a service. But one 9 year old child had no knowledge of how to adjust the temperature by turning the water faucet handles. It was her first shower. And her experience with plumbing was limited to the school which had large communal step-on spraying sinks for hands placed outside of the the bathrooms. It was so bad. Nearly hopeless. But their normal way of life.

I love this family and wish a lot people would get to know them better before judging and assuming. They’re absolutely amazing people, especially ray. He isn’t stupid AT ALL he only has issues communicating. He’s very alert, cautious and wise and can read people’s auras like we watch this video

This is some The Hills have Eyes type stuff💀

Funny story is that my family actually has legitimate double first cousins. But not from inbreeding. My grandfather married my grandmother, and then my grandfather's sister married my grandmother's brother which in turn gave us legitimate double first cousins.

In my family, a pair of brothers married an outside pair of sisters. My great uncle resulted from one marriage while the woman he went on to marry (his first cousin) came from the other marriage. They had 4 children: one son born deaf, one daughter was cognitive issues, and 2 more children who were seemingly normal

Gracie really married a man who has the same name as her own father who also happens to be her first cousin...

Whittakers be like: im your mom, your sister, your double cousin, and your grandmother!!

Being from the southeast US, I'd always heard (and laughed at) all the jokes and jibes at the expense of southerners where we're supposedly incredibly inbred or prone to inbreeding, especially among "backwoods hillbilly" types. I'd also heard of and read about the Hapsburgs and the ancient Egyptian royals. I've even heard of staggering modern statistics on the level of inbreeding present in certain non native groups of the UK. I never thought one of the most inbred families in history was right here in my neck of the woods. Fascinating.

to be fair, Ray _could communicate._ he clearly understands some of what is said to him, he just can't speak. he uses _body language_

I remember my mother telling me that one set of her grandparents were first cousins, that it was NOT frowned upon then, and that in fact they felt it was good for the bloodlines and improved the quality of the offspring.

Eugenics now takes on a whole new meaning.

You mentioned ancient Egypt. Cleopatra's grandfather married both of his sisters. Co-sanguinity of 50%. Then the son and daughter half siblings/first cousins got married and had 5 kids. I think that would be 62.5% King Tut's parents weren't close relatives but if you look into his family history there was a lot of sibling marriages and one guy who married his own daughter. They eventually got to the point where there were no close relatives to marry due to high mortality rates and started to marry unrelated people for several generations.

I believe that Timmy's father was related to Lorena. The genetic disorder appears to be autosomal recessive, and an affected person wouldn't have an affected child (although the child would be a carrier). The fact that Timmy has the same genetic disorder as his mother proves that his father is either affected or a carrier and most likely from the same family.

If John and Henry are identical twins, then the inbreeding coefficient is even highers, since their children are the equivalent of half-siblings.

The Chinese long ago recognized the defects due to inbreeding. Even today couples of same surnames are discouraged from marrying to reduce possibility of being ancestrial relatives.

Wouldn't John(younger) and Gracie being basically biologically half siblings and not first cousins since henry and John(older) were identical twins?

I worked for a lady that her dad was also her grandfather. She was a hoarder with probably numerous other mental health issues I had never learned of. So sad.

One crazy thing is that I understood Ray's grunts. I knew what he was trying to communicate, LOL.

I watched this in the hopes of shedding a little light on the situation. I must say I’m twice as confused as before. “ Here’s Danny. His picture didn’t get taken. Here’s Danny Ray. They call him Ray. He’s not a brother. I’ll show you that later. WTF.

You asked what stood out to us, so.. As an appalachian native, eastern KY to be exact, the appalachias are super secluded from the rest of the country and have been othered out for nearly the entirety of post-collonist history. Lack of educational opportunities, poverty, and the sparce population density in the mountains actually leads, though more often way back in the days when cars weren't available, to inbreeding as most families in the area are related in some way. I feel like raising money for this family does not negate the fact that they used their circumstances, a group of people whom have been oppressed and exploited by the government and the rest of the country for nearly its entire history as the USA, to profit and exploit again. These people also aren't taught long-term finance, you're lucky if you graduate high school. My own father dropped out, and instead went on to get a GED. To raise money for them without truly teaching them how to live in something other than poverty is just performative. Not to mention, a temporary patch, as no one is fighting to lift the appalachias out of the coal mine its crawled into. These are the conditions made for these people, to look at them and gawk under the guise of help is what has been done for a long time.. to the appalachias and to it's people. So, thats what stood out to me. These photos and stories were not some cry for change, but an excuse to stare. Aside from that, YOUR contribution to this video was quite interesting! If anything I've said has piqued readers' interests, or you're interested in localized wars, the appalachias, or its history with exploitation, I would reccomend looking into the Harlan County War, also referred to as bloody harlan. It was a series of coal industry fights, executions, bombings and strikes that took place in Harlan County, Kentucky, during the 1930s. The incidents involved coal miners and union organizers on one side and coal firms and law enforcement on the other. Just a small, but very meaningful part of our history in this region. I would also suggest a listen to the song, "You'll never leave Harlan alive" by Darrell Scott. Darell scott was born in London, Kentucky, and gives a distictly native discription of the appalachian experience in this song.

My grandmother told me there used to be an inbreeding issue within one branch of her family, who lived in the Shenandoah Valley region. Every little girl that was born, the family would keep a close eye on once they reached the 12-14 age range, because some of those daughters were actually sons. What I mean by that is that that some members of this branch of the family carried a gene that delayed development of testosterone, and thus male sexual organs, when the fetus’s genital ridge was supposed to start changing. So when these babies popped out, they were almost always categorized as female just be default, and raised as such. But when testosterone kicked into high gear with the onset of puberty, these kids would develop male sexual organs relatively fast, which I’m sure caused a lot of alarm and confusion for them. This happened as recently as one of my grandmother’s cousins, a great-great cousin to me. The whole thing apparently became somewhat common for them because the little community in which they lived was pretty isolated up until the 1920’s/30’s, so the few families there just kept marrying each other until the area opened up. This is a pretty rare condition, from what I can tell, so I can only guess at how high the consanguinity coefficient was for some of those kids.

I have a distant cousin married to a distant relative of the Whittakers

This is why I tell people to run when they hear banjos in the woods

So sad that no one stepped in to stop this. And I remember how Betty’s mom made her promise to take care of all of them. Selfish upon selfish. 😢

The left eye issue seems to be a common theme in the family. I wonder if a particular inbred deformity continues down the line

Beautifully video

“Family bush” 💀💀

A friend of mine is a priest up in Alaska. Sometimes he goes out into the native villages. He learned very quickly not to ask how people are related. You just don't want to know. There's not a whole Lotta branches on those family trees either. Between that and the amount of drug and alcohol abuse it is a very sad state of affairs up there.

My cousins parents are 1st cousins but she came out perfectly normal. It still weird me out, but I love my cousin a lot. It wasn't like her parents didn't know they were related, though, so that's what weird me out. I know inbreeding is a part of a lot of people's history's but there are 7 billion of us now and there is still so many people in this day and age that still go through it. It's mind-boggling, really. I do feel bad for the Whittakers family kids because of their parents' choices they're suffering.

Also as Gracie's and John jr's fathers were identical brothers, not only were they first cousins to each other legally, genetically they would be half-siblings, as their dads would have identical genes.

My Cousin and I were watching this and laughing so hard, it woke up our baby daughter.....

My grandmother told me that in the neighborhood the father abused his girls after the mother died. They thought it was normal for the father to do this to them. One of the girls became pregnant several times but the babies were never seen. The other, what luck, couldn't have children. Later, when the truth came out, the father and daughter were convicted of multiple murders locked . The village community never talked about it. I think some knew but they looked the other way . I can't understand what I would do to my child. I'm glad I have a good father😊😮

It wasn't just that that region of West Virginia was so poor. Its also due to the fact that that region is so cut off from the rest of the world due to the mountainous terrain. So no new people were coming in and the Whittakers werent leaving either.

Absolutely Heartbreaking! Im an Indian and in my clan, we trace back till 7 generations that the man and woman getting married have no blood relations and only then any marriage is approved As a kid I always wondered why so much unnecessary drama and effort..probably another hindu orthodox belief but as I grew up I understood this was to ensure no inbreeding happens...Im so grateful to the elders of my culture for this rule that all our generations happily follow !!

Timmy's photo is very disturbing. You won't allege anything, but I reckon Grandad John did the dirty deed.

My paternal grandmother is actually not the granddaughter of her grandfather but the daughter. My (not so) great great grandfather abused his daughter and conceived my grandmother. My grandmother and her mother were shunned by the whole family and they led their lives feeling ashamed, the poor women. As far as I know this had no consequences for my father's health or mine. This happened in a relatively well-educated European region in the 30's of last century. Sh*t happens all over the world.

I feel bad for these people. Their lives must be difficult, and they are so mentally deficient that they can't even comprehend how they are passing these problems down to their children.

Just a correction: the Whittaker family are from West Virginia. You showed a picture that highlighted Virginia and said Virginia. They’re separate states.

Actually, Mark's most infamous photo taken is NOT Danny aka Ray, Timmy, and Freddy, but rather Freddy, Timmy, and Danny aka Ray. R I P Freddy!!

If you've been to walmart in the last couple decades, this is debatable

If John and Henry truly are identical twins, they're considered biologically identical too. So, John jr and Gracie are closer to half siblings. Using what little math I retaine, the inbreeding coefficient forumla should ACTUALLY be something like this: John and Aida Riggs were first cousins, giving Gracie an inbreeding coefficient of 12.5%. John jr, as far as genealogy is concerned, has a very low inbreesing coefficient. For this forumla, let's say it's 0%. John jr and Gracie are biologically half siblings, adding a 25% inbreeding coefficient to their tally. If we take Timmy into account, his additional inbreeding coefficient could be anywhere from 12.5% to 50%, depending on who fathered him. Adding those numbers, that's a total of 37.25 for the siblings and anywhere from 49.5 to 87.25 for Timmy. Do I know what that would make the inbreeding coefficient for the family? No. And I dont wanna fucking know too, cause either way that's too damn close.

Thank you clarifying their lineage. I have been following them with Mark since the beginning and I could never understand it till now.

I’m gonna make it my mission to break that record

I figured it would make it higher because the boys were twins

I like how you know how the name is supposed to be pronounced, but make the conscious and deliberate decision to mispronounce it for the entire video.

I really hope you pay royalties to Soft Whit Underbelly. Mark deserves all the credit for this. BTW, Lorraine said in one of the videos that she was raped, and that's how she became pregnant with Timmy. She refused to say who the father was, but chances are pretty good that it was her own father who did it.

Looks like a goldfish breeding Aquarium that started with only one pair.

The Targaryens be like "hold my beer"

One of my maternal grandfather's sisters married to one of their cousins. They had 4 children (3 boys and 1 girl). My aunt (their only daughter) has developed cancer twice, and the last one was a very rare type of breast cancer. Her oncologist sadly said that they couldn't dismiss the possibility that inbreeding could have augmented my aunt's probability of developing that type of cancer 😬

one or two generations of first cousin marriages dont cause this, it would need to be numerous successive 1st cousins, or direct incest with a sibling parentt or aunt/uncle

Then there is that mountain pass in Slieve Aughty mountains.....that is just plain scary

"The WIT-TAKERS, or Whittakers (depending on your accent)..." No, my guy. No one says it like that. You made it seem like they were going to rob me of my humor. The wit takers.

Appears that they all suffered because of lack of education surrounding the risks. Living in a small town at that time would have made it more difficult. I hope they are all doing the best they can

One correction. John and Gracie were genetically half siblings, and not first cousins. Since their respective fathers were twins, or clones.

I’ve seen people like this in eastern Kentucky. Scary.

Reminds me of the horror movie “ the Hills have Eyes” but even in the movie the effects were from radiation and coal mining in the desert where the horrific looking psychopaths lived I’m not sure of they were all inbread but they definitely looked live the Whittakers

For future videos, note that there is a difference between 0.18% and 18%. The figure "zero point one eight percent" is quoted in the video when it should have been "eighteen percent." They seem to be used interchangeably here but they are different. Put simply: 0.18 = 18% and 0.0018 = 0.18%. Thanks for this video. Glad I've had no interest in hooking up with any of my cousins.

Having children with a close relative is probably one of the most selfish things you could ever do. Imagine being born to a sibling/cousin courtship, suffering the consequences. You have literally no choice but to live it. Absolutely fucking sickening

"How Inbred are the Whittakers?" :shows picture: Me: "Why do I hear banjo music all of a sudden?"

Que, the theme from DELIVERANCE