Trainspotters and Morris dancers can now defend their unfashionable hobbies as a genetic inevitability, according to research.
The study, commissioned by ancestry website findmypast.com, suggests that more than a quarter of us have inherited our ancestors' pastimes and professions in the same way we inherited our surnames and eye-colour from them.
Hobbies, such as Morris dancing, fishing or sailing, and professions such as journalism and nursing can all be handed down from parent to child through, what researchers are calling, the "hobby gene".
Some 2,234 British adults took part in an online survey by Opinium Research LL.
