Gregor Mendel Gregor Mendel was born in 1822 to a peasant family in Czechoslovakia. At the age of 21 he entered a monastery to become a monk. Mendel had a fascination for plants and, as part of his studies, he began a series of experiments on pea plants in the monastery's gardens. From his work we have a much more complete understanding of how characteristics are passed from generation to generation through genes and today we know that when an offspring inherits two genes from a mother and father, one of the genes will be dominant and be responsible for a particular characteristic. Because of Mendel's attention to detail and precise record-keeping, he made a significant impact on the world of genetics.