This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/FNR.2ACEB/4431.1.1.1 Message Board Post: DNA studies certainly seem to be showing that there were a "ton" of "non-paternity events" in just about every surname. This could be the result of adoptions (where the adopted child was given the surname of the adopting parent), second marriages (where a pregnant woman's husband died and she remarried and gave the baby the surname of the second husband), and "affairs" (been going on forever, it seems). There are also cases where people changed their surname for legal and/or "protection" reasons. All of these types of cases are usually tougher to solve than the "conventional surname matches," and I wish you the best in your continuing quest. We have a man surnamed Bishop who is a 36/37 match to my closest match (and he is a 35/37 match to me). We also have another man who thought that his line MIGHT have been adopted, and sure enough, the DNA results seemed to prove that (he was not a match to the Davidson family that he thought was the only distinct possibility). More recently, however, he WAS a close match to another new Davidson donor, so the "plot" just became "thicker."