Red Hair, Weasleys and Evanses

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 95480

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ariadnedrue" <ariadnedrue at y...>
wrote:
> Just wondering...
> 
> A lot of people talk about connections with the number 12, socks, 
> etc.  Does anyone think that JK stresses the fact that Lily has red 
> hair, to maybe thinking she has a distant connection with the 
> Weasley's?  Like the Weasley's cousing (?) that no one talks about? I 
> tried to see if this has been mentioned before, but I couldn't find 
> anything.
>
> ariadnedrue

bboy_mn:

I'm sure this has been touched on several times before and spawned
many theories about who might be related to who, and I can't discount
the possibility, but I think the answer may be simpler than that.

Worldwide, red hair is extremely rare, almost to the point of being a
genetic aberration. However, it is a very common trait relative to
people of Scotish and Irish decent, and given the proximity of England
it's safe to assume there are a significant number of red headed
people living there too. Being from the USA, I can't think of more
than maybe four or five people that I've met in my lifetime who had
red hair, and can't remember the last time a saw a person with red
hair (real red hair).

Give how rare a trait it is, one could logically assume that the
Weasleys and Evans might be related, but the real question is, are
they significantly related? And the answer, or at least, my answer is,
I don't think so. I think it means that they have a common geographic
ancestral region. In other words, they are both decented from Irish or
Scots. 

(Any Britophiles care to venture a guess as to the geographic origin
of the Evans and Weasley names?)

But I don't think it has significants in the story. One reason for
this belief is that there are already TOO many unsolved mysteries and
interconnections in the series now. I don't see how JKR can possibly
wrap them all up in only two more books unless those two book abondon
the on-going story, and spend all their time resolving
interconnections, mysteries, and filling in backstory.

Of course, that's just one man's opinion.

bboy_mn