A man has stunned social media users by showing the striking likeness he shares with his great-great-grandfather, despite living 120 years apart.
While digging through old family photographs, Fox Ryker, 26, came across a picture of Antonio Valls, his maternal great-great-grandfather. The photograph—taken in 1900 when Valls was 22 years old—instantly caught Ryker's eye because of the resemblance he has to his ancestor.
Ryker, from Philadelphia, found a photo of himself at the age of 22 and was struck by the likenesses. He told Newsweek that prior to finding the 20th-century photograph, he "wasn't aware of any similarities." But after seeing them for himself, there was no denying them.
"As soon as I saw the old photo, I just thought, Wow, I look just like him," Ryker said. "I was most surprised by how much we look alike, given that we're four generations apart and share very little similar DNA."
Ryker, interested in seeing if other people noticed the resemblance, shared the two images on Reddit. His post quickly went viral, receiving more than 38,000 votes and 750 comments in a number of days.
Some Redditors joked that Ryker was a reincarnated version of his great-great-grandfather.
While Ryker was fascinated by the similarities between his and Valls' faces, he was also intrigued by the contrasts in the images. After all, a lot has changed between 1900 and 2020.
"The two photos are evidence of how much has changed in time because we both have different hairstyles, mustaches, clothing, and the composition of the photos are very different. Not to mention, I'm holding a smartphone in my photo," he said.
Alexander Graham Bell was granted the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876—24 years before the photo of Valls was taken and more than a century before phones were used for taking selfies and watching TikTok videos.
Since the Reddit post went viral, Ryker has been amazed by the overwhelming response. He said it's been "very polarized" so far, as the reactions continue to pour in.
"Some people think I'm him reincarnated, while others think we look nothing alike. A few even threw around insults, but that's the internet for you," he added.
Among the hundreds of comments, plenty of Redditors pointed out the similarities between the relatives, but not everyone was convinced.
"Apart from the eyes you look completely different to me. Chin, nose, lips etc.," one user commented, while another said, "OK, where's your time machine?"
"Welcome back, OP's maternal great-great grandfather!" a commenter added, suggesting that Ryker, the original poster, was his ancestor reincarnated.
Another user wrote, "Imagine if he knew people would look at his picture 120 years after it was taken."
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