A previously unknown adoption or extra marital event in your surname line could be uncovered with DNA testing.   As a participant (or potential participant) in the Knowles Surname Project, you need to  understand that your results may be indicative of an unidentified adoption or extra marital event in your line. The discovery may be a complete surprise to you.

Often, a participant who discovers an adoption or extra marital event as the result of an initial test will be interested in further DNA testing to uncover the generation where the event occurred.  Once the generation is established, further research can focus on uncovering the missing clues and other additional information.

To identify the generation to establish the time frame of the event, the following method can be utilized.  First, for the participant who does not match the expected ancestor, make a list of all the generations between the documented common ancestor of the participants who do match, and the participant who does not match.  

The generations are numbered, and the birth year of the husband in each generation is shown for the example below (assume Generation 1 produced four (4) sons:

ADOPTION / EXTRA MARITAL EVENT
EXAMPLE  CHART

In this example, assume that four (4) documented direct descent males from the four (4) sons from generation #1 obtained the 25-Marker Y-chromosome test.  Two of these DNA test participants match 25/25 and one of the participants matches 24/25.  (Note: the process in this example will require either a 25-marker or a 37-marker test for all participants;  a 12-marker test is not likely to produce the desired results).  The fourth participant is not a match.  The participant who did not match rechecked his research, and is now interested in uncovering the generation for the event that introduced a different Y-chromosome to his family tree.  The participant who did not match is in generation #11 in the above chart.

The chart above is the direct descent tree developed for participant #11, the participant who did not match the descendents of other sons of the progenitor of this line, generation #1.

The following approach will identify the generation where the adoption or extra marital event occurred.  The first step is to find a descendent from generation #6 who is from a different son of #6 than the son in #11's direct line of descent.  If #6 did not have other sons, or there are no direct descent males today from any of the sons, either go up to #5 or down to #7, looking for a direct descent male from a different son.

Let's assume, for our example, that there is a direct descent male for a different son of #6.  This person obtains a Y-DNA test, and their result matches the other 3 participants, who are descendents of #1.  This result confirms that the adoption or extra marital event did not occur with the birth of #6, and that the event occurred in a subsequent generation.

The next step would be to test a descendent of a different son of #9.  The methodology of the approach is to take the list of generations to be tested, and find the middle, and test a descendent of a different son.  If you have a match to the descendents of #1, the event occurred after the father of the son you selected.  If the test results are not a match to #1, then the event occurred with that father or before.  Whether you are going up or down the chart, at each step you find the middle of the remaining section of the chart, and test a descendent from a different son.

To find where the adoption or extra marital event occurred, in each step you find the middle of the number of generations.  In the first step, generation #6 was selected, because it is mid point between #1 and #11.  For the next step, we want to find the midpoint between #6 and #11, which would be Generation #9.  A direct descent male from a different son of #9 would obtain a test.

For this example, assume the results for the different son of #9 also matched the initial participants who are descendents of #1.  Therefore, the adoption or extramarital event occurred with the son of #9 from which #11 descended or with #10 or the birth of #11.  The next step would be to test a direct descent male from a different son of #10.  The results from this participant match #11, which identifies the event occurring with the birth of #10 for this example.

Once the event is identified where the adoption or extra marital event occurred, further research may uncover additional information.  

Let’s look at another example.  In this second example, the same approach is used, however, the result identifies the event as having occurred with #8.   Further research reminded the participant that #8 is not in the 1880 census entry for the family, and he always previously assumed that the birth date he had for #8 was perhaps off by a few years.  After careful study of all the census entries in the town where the family lived, he discovers a boy with the same first name as #8, living with a family down the street, with their surname.  This family has 9 children.

A possible theory is that #8 was taken in by the participant’s family and assumed their surname.  Further research, and finding a direct descent male from the original family for #8 to test, confirmed that a non-formal adoption had occurred.

DNA testing can be utilized to identify the generation where an adoption or extra marital event occurred.  Then, further research may uncover additional information.