Which is why I could never take genealogy very seriously, except for its historical aspects (“The couple who raised my grandmother lived…”) Anyone who hasn’t led a sheltered life and/or has read any number of authoritative modern biographies knows how many children were raised outside biological lines - adultery, even deliberate spouse-swapping, OOW children given to and raised by aunts and cousins, casual adoptions never disclosed, etc. - all under the radar. I’d wager that most genealogies going back more than 100 years are partly fictional, at least as far as biological lineage goes. The prevalence of “surprising” DNA markers showing up in families with lily-white ancestor portrait walls is telling.
I would suspect that adultery was less common a reason than adopting a stepchild or nephew/niece, unrelated child.
Married women also get pregnant from rape. So it’s not always some evil cheating bitch. Not that anyone is saying that here, but it’s just something that bugs me.
I know that. I’m just pointing out they weren’t some n00bs.
I have always determined lineage by whom was married to whom, and who was reported to be the child of whom or married to whom as listed in paperwork and on tombstones. I make no claims to genetics, simply matters of record. Much safer that way. After all, I know a number of people who were adopted [or did adopt kids] and treat them just like they popped them out themselves, so I really don’t care about the genetics of it all, just the paperwork aspect. In the longest thread of my family line, I went by who was married to who, what the names of the accepted children were as determined by wills, baptisms, marriages and burials. If my ggggggg-grandfather accepted someone as his son and listed him in the will, I am not about to argue over the possibility of ggggggg-grandmother having screwed around with the court jester or whomever I really don’t give a care, I am only concerned with the will and assorted marriages.