Gray and Black eyes

[Brandon Ledvina]

Through years of reading books and articles I have read many times about gray and black eyes. You also read dark which I assume would be brown although I don’t know why they don’t just say that. For one example Edward Bates wrights in his diary about missing the birth of his first daughter, Nancy. He wonders “whether she has black eyes or gray.”

My question is what is meant by this? People have brown, blue, or green eyes. I highly doubt it was any different back then. If anyone knows a good explanation I would really like to know.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Gray and Black eyes

People have gray eyes today, and black is still used to describe some very dark brown eyes that look almost black.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_color#Gray

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Gray and Black eyes

Hallo!

My father, a dark haired "European" man, had gray eyes.

Humans do not have "black" eyes (although there may be black pigment present) , they are just brown or dark brown and can appear blackish according to the light.

Eye color is complex and is a factor of the pigment color and melanin concentration in the iris AS WELL AS how light is reflected/directed by the stroma of the iris. As a result, ambient light color such as from clothing, the environment, and lighting conditions can change color. As kind mood and emotional state..

A parallel examples is.. what color is a Blue Jay. Blue Jays are gray, unless the lighting is right which makes them blue.

Anyways, one can have eyes that "change" color through blue, gray, and green. On my various driver's licenses over the years, I have been listed as having blue, or gray, or green eyes at different renewal times. Family members claim they can gauge my mental state by my eye color- blue being happy, green pretty good, and gray not so good. In reply I say it is just what color shirt I am wearing the lighting.

Historically, eye color can run through different ethnicities (nationalities).

Curt

[Brandon Ledvina]

Re: Gray and Black eyes

Yes, I was thinking black would be a real dark brown and grey was probably a shade of blue. However how often do you hear soon to be parents today discussing if there kid will have black or grey eyes? Maybe they looked closer than we do today.

In the Spring issue of The Civil War Monitor magazine they showed different studies collected from regimental muster rolls of the US army and published shortly after the war. One of them was eye color as shown below.

Blue -------- 44.9%
Grey -------- 24.3%
Hazel ------- 12.8%
Dark -------- 10.4%
Black --------7.6%

From this I would guess 30.8% had some shade of brown and 69.2% had a shade of blue. It just seems to me even if you exclude minorities, roughly seven out of ten people having blue eyes seems high. Although I have blue eyes I see more people with brown than blue. Maybe it is because of where I live. It also seems odd that there is no percentage for green eyes. I see more people with green eyes than people I would say would have grey or black.

Maybe I’m looking to far into this but I sit and think about it every time I read it.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Gray and Black eyes

From this I would guess 30.8% had some shade of brown and 69.2% had a shade of blue. It just seems to me even if you exclude minorities, roughly seven out of ten people having blue eyes seems high. Although I have blue eyes I see more people with brown than blue. Maybe it is because of where I live. It also seems odd that there is no percentage for green eyes. I see more people with green eyes than people I would say would have grey or black.

Maybe I’m looking to far into this but I sit and think about it every time I read it.

I wonder if they classified green eyes as hazel? But yes, as far as I know it's pretty well agreed that the proportion of blue-eyed people was higher in the mid-19th century. To oversimplify, blue is controlled by recessive genes, so when there are brown eyes in the population, the blue will tend to decline (though scientists are discovering eye-color genes are more complicated than we used to think).

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Gray and Black eyes

Hallo!

I suspect Herr Hank is correct as 'hazel" is a tricky one it ranges in the greens and browns.

On the other yes, the "gene pool" has shifted away from the colors one would associate with Northern European and British with the rise of post CW immigration.

And last since we often do not know intent or meaning in writing, it may be remotely possible that Bates was wondering about his daughter as to whether she "got" his eye color or his wife's? :)

Curt

[Brandon Ledvina]

Re: Gray and Black eyes

Funny thing. I was at a friend of the family’s house yesterday and she commented on how pretty my daughters grey eyes were. A lot of people have commented on her eyes before but this is the first time anyone said grey, at least around me. I always thought of them as blue, just like almost everyone on my Dad’s side of the family has.

Thanks for the replies from before.