I have a photograph of an old Indian woman said to be my great great grandmother. Seems what happened is that she moved back into the family that she was had a role in upon the death of her husband's 2nd wife who was the mother of my great grandmother.

No one knew and thought the 1880 census to be a typographical error and then, wife #2 was found in the Arkansas marriage index getting married to this man -- my great great grandfather!

Kind of makes it all a pack of lies in a large part IMO.

Good luck w/your situation! *yeek*

To me, family are the people I grew up with and get along with. I don't care what the genetics are. I've known adoptees that were closer to the people who raised them than I was to my parents.

I'm sorry your friend's brothers and sisters don't understand that the relationships they have as people is more important that the gene donors who created them.

On the other hand, I have so many marriages between first cousins in my tree, I really hope that some of those families had outside gene donors to increase the variability!

Family history is not just biological -- there are also stories, traditions, a cultural DNA that gets passed down and is interesting to trace. I have found a least one surprise in the DNA, but it illuminates one of the stories in that family -- the ancestor who ran away from home and enlisted as a drummer boy -- this now looks like bravado covering up his illegitimacy, a new dimension to his life.

As to anyone (as in the OP) who persuades his siblings to all have their DNA tests -- only reason for doing this, is he (and perhaps they) already suspected the biological relationships.

is not the son of the man who he thought was his father for years. In that case one of his great aunts told me the truth and then when he sent for a copy of his birth certificate it was clearly stated. The big trouble is that he did not want his children told. I think that is wrong but an honoring his wishes.

The other was the oldest daughter of a family of nine and she was raised by her grandparents instead of her mother and "father". We are all agreed that it is likely she was not his daughter but have no idea who was.

I do genealogy for fun and I use it to teach my grandchildren and now my great grandchildren history. Many of our family came from the same area as Thomas Jefferson and some traveled west with the Lincoln family so it is easy to talk about what was going on in history.

I have often joked that I wanted to find a jesse james in our line.

I nearly got punched out by some guy because I said, "When you get down to it, no one can be absolutely sure who their father is." So if this guy got angry because of my suggestion, how much more with a DNA test to prove it?

the rate of "false paternity" has been found to range between 1-5%, on average, with a median incidence of 3.7%. See here: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/06/the-paternity-myth-the-rarity-of-cuckoldry/#.VKkw6Fd_Q25