NPEs - non-paternity events

[ElizabethHerts]

I have been reading about NPEs and it really got me thinking.

I have no reason to suspect that any of my ancestors were not the children of the father I have recorded for them, but realistically the chances are that I do have some NPEs in my tree.

While I was awake in the middle of the night, I was thinking that DNA testing has proved the accuracy of my research for some of my lines and that perhaps I should record this in some way. This in turn will highlight where I need to focus my attention to investigate lines where I don't yet have DNA evidence.

Some time ago I made a list of all my direct ancestors from my tree as a Word document. Now I am simply highlighting in red the lines where DNA matches proved that my research is correct. Obviously, it will get more difficult the farther back I go, but it should be a helpful tool.

I am, however, very frustrated about the lack of matches I have hitherto found for my mother's tree, although there are a few good ones. I have realised that on my maternal grandmother's side there are lines which died out as children either didn't marry or married and didn't produce children. This has had the effect of reducing the number of people who could now take a DNA test from her ancestors.