Diabetes often runs in families. If one of your parents has diabetes, your chances of getting it immediately become significantly higher.
Certain population groups are also more prone to this condition, as are people who are significantly overweight.
But if you are diabetic, it is by no means certain that your children will also be diabetics. Just as they may not have inherited your curly hair or strong teeth, they may also have sidestepped the diabetes.
Diabetes also seems to be closely linked to lifestyle, and in migrating populations, the incidence of diabetes takes on the pattern of the area to which people have moved.