Hidden Paternity
Hidden paternity, also called false paternity, is
defined as a break in one's male ancestral lineage in which
a person believed to the father of a particular individual
is not the biological father.
As of May 4, 2010, we had exactly 100 members in our
Culpepper DNA project.
The test
results for 78% of them match the
general DNA signature of each other, and each of these
individuals is now confirmed to be a descendant of the
American progenitor, Henry Culpepper of Lower Norfolk, VA.
Another 15% of our project members have matched one or more
other Culpeppers, but they are not genetic descendants of
Henry Culpepper. The remaining 7%, whose DNA is unmatched, had previously
been believed to be descendants of Henry or of one
of his ancestors. Thus, these project members have hidden paternity,
and it probably occurred many generations in the past.
Hidden paternity can occur due to an individual's or ancestor's:
-
Mother dying
in childbirth and her baby given to a family,
preferably where another mother had given birth and
had 'natural' food available for both;
-
Assuming the
surname of a step-father without a legal adoption (the
preceding reason is a specific example of this general
circumstance);
-
Legal
adoption, the records for which have either been hidden
or lost;
-
Other
instances of an intentional, but now hidden, name
change;
-
Conception
while the mother is unmarried, and then prior to the
birth of her child, the mother marries a different man. In some instances, without DNA testing, no one may know
who the real father is;
-
Conception as
a result of an illicit affair, and generally the
father who raises the child is unaware that he is not
the biological father;
-
Conception
out-of-wedlock and being given the mother's surname;
-
Conception as
a result of rape;
-
Conception by
artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization; or
-
Being
switched with another baby at the hospital.
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Last Revised:
02 Jan 2015 |
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