Genealogy trashed by DNA

[bikermickau]

What does NPE mean

I just recently discovered via 2 persons DNA results that one of my maternal lines is wrong for one of my ancestors, however for her siblings the maternal line I have is correct.

Mick

[Rosinish]

Non Paternity Event - the expected father was not the father.

This could also be the result for an adopted child.

Annie

[brigidmac]

If you choose the legal parents as preferred option the birth parents will not show on your main tree unless someone searching a profile happens to click on alternative parents .

If you want to see DNA thru lines you have to put birth parents as preferred option .

You can change preferences for example when I was researching the adoptive family I put them as preferred parents ...I thought there might be a family link as is often the case in informal adoptions .
Found one distant descendant in South Africa!

Then changed settings back to birth parents !

[TonyV]

I can well understand your feelings. I recently discovered that the entire paternal side of my tree was invalid. More than half the time spent over the past 18 years seemed overnight to have been such a waste of my life and not a small amount of money. However, with a bit of perspective I decided that I was happy with the content of that side of my tree and that it is therefore relevant to thousands of other people who do descend from the line, not least my "former" cousins. So the real question now is how to bequeath it to them to use when, at the moment, none of them is a genealogist. 

That's not such a big problem and if they choose never to use it, at least it won't have been me who dumps it. I will however add, that what was formerly a somewhat obsessive quest of mine to get past a brick wall on that side of the tree has turned into a complete lack of interest to develop it any more. My obsession now is to see how to start a new paternal line and that is proving tough right now.

[Colleen Johnson]

Thank you Brigidmac. That is very useful advice. And TonyV this is how my siblings and I have felt with the DNA shocks we have received.  We definitely don't want to throw all that away.
Can I ask if people in this situation have contacted relatives in the new paternal line? I feel awkward about changing my tree when I haven't even confirmed it with the close DNA relatives I have recently discovered. I'm relying on messaging through Ancestry and MyHeritage, but often people don't look at those for months on end.  And I'm reticent about trawling through social media. I feel like I need a Code of Ethics!

[Nanna52]

You can try, but don’t expect much then you won’t be disappointed.  Also be aware that those that answer may not know either.
I was lucky that one of the first people I contacted was able to tell me my great grandparents so I started building a seperate tree from them to see what I could find.  She had an NPE connecting her to that family too.
I found quite a few people who didn’t know a parent either through an NPE or father disappeared when they were young.  It is a challenge.
You need to be careful how you word your contact too.  Along the lines of I am interested to explore where we connect, rather than mention that there is a NPE.  Be prepared to do a lot of sleuthing with the information you are given.

[bikermickau]

This is when I started to realize there was a NPE on my maternal line.

Quote "
Hi Mick I'm having fun trying to work out How Jean 42cm 5 seg And you 36cm 3seg fit into tree shared matches bring up jilletts Jean brings alot more share matches any ideas? Cheers Thomas"

I think he was excited as he has a NPE also and was hoping they was the same person, that is not the case.

Mick

[brigidmac]

i contacted some of my mothers closest matches one was very surprised that their grandmothers had same names and that his father was not actually an only child.

another match was able to share a photo of their mutual latvian great grandfather and i was able to share the research pre his emigration to USA .
one has shared her dna results so i can check on mutual matches

even if you have guessed the connection if the non paternal event is through the matches direct parent its better to word it carefully or contact a shared match of theirs first from a younger generation if possible .
good luck ..do come back to this thread and let us know any progress

[coombs]

It is very saddening, and to find years of researching a line has all been for nothing. Makes you wonder if you should just throw all your research in the bin.

Goes to show that cuckoldry was just as rife in our ancestors days as it is now. Finding out through DNA that great gran, or great, great gran had a few flings with other men while married to her husband.