Non-Paternity Event is an expression that's popular with genetic genealogist; those involved in DNA testing. They often abbreviate Non-Paternity Event to NPE and some may get cross if you expand this abbreviation as Non-Parental Event, because that term covers both non-paternity and non-maternity events.
Non-Paternity Event, or Non-Paternal Event is an technical-sounding term for misattributed paternity. The need to express misattributed paternity arises because DNA (specifically, the Y chromosome) is passed from father to child, from the biological father to the child, while many family trees contain official fathers who aren't the biological father.
Those using the term NPE explain it as caused by, and thus a shorthand for a variety of situations; such as
The lists often includes illegitimate child. It even often tops the list. Authors typically state that illegitimacy is the major cause of NPEs, but certainly not the only one…
It seems that many involved in genetic testing initially considered illegitimate children to be the only possible or at least the main cause of misattributed paternity, discovered that there are multiple causes, and have since tried to list as many different causes as possible.
Not one single NPE has been caused by a child being illegitimate.
I've noticed that several such lists include multiple, slightly different descriptions of what is
really the same cause. The authors of these lists seem to be trying hard to list
as many
possible causes as they think of. The disregard for duplication apparent in many
such lists suggests that these authors are eager to appear politically correct, but
probably still believe that illegitimate children are the main cause of NPEs.
They couldn't be more wrong. Not one single NPE has been caused by a child
being illegitimate.
Some of the events on the above list do not really belong on it; for example, an recorded adoption does not cause an NPE; we know who the official parents are, we know who the adoptive parents are. If there is an NPE, it is only because the official father isn't the biological father in the first place, not because of the adoption that happend later. Similarly, a child taking their stepfather's family name does not cause an NPE.
An NPE occurs when the official records do not match the biological record. There does not seem to be industry-wide agreement on whether a misattribution caused by incomplete or sloppy research is or isn't an NPE. A recorded adoption never causes the NPE, but insufficient research for an adopted child may result in an NPE.
A genetic testing company performing tests for some genealogy presented
to them does not know the quality of that genealogy. They will simply call any
misattributed paternity an NPE, whatever the cause of the misattributation. That is why, although a
recorded adoption does not cause an NPE, what genetic
testers label an NPE may still correspond to a recorded adoption.
However, not one single NPE is caused by, nor corresponds with
a child being illegitimate.
Illegitimacy is never the cause of a so-called NPE. On the contrary, it closer to the truth to say that it is legitimacy that causes them!
Illegitimacy is never the cause of a so-called NPE. On the contrary, it is closer to the truth to say it is legitimacy that causes them!
Fact of the matter is, illegitimate child does not belong on the list of causes for so-called NPEs at all. That it often included probably reflects an all too common misunderstanding of what an illegitimate child is. Illegitimate child is not another term for a cuckoo child.
In common law, a child is legitimate if the parents are married, and
illegitimate if the parents aren't married. There are some border cases, such as
putative marriages.
Illegitimate children used to have less legal rights than legitimate children.
Having an illegitimate child or being an illegitimate child carried a social
stigma, and in many parts of today's society, it still does. The terminology still carries such a strong negative charge, that many
prefer alternative terminology, such as extramarital child.
This texts deliberately uses the older terminology, simply because legitimate and
illegitimate are so obviously legal terms. That underscores that legitimacy is a
legal concept, not a genealogical one.
Illegitimacy does not cause misattribution of paternity. The desire to make children legitimate does.
When an unmarried woman has a child, that child is illegitimate. Often, the birth certificate will list the father as unknown. When the official father is listed as unknown, the paternity of the child certainly isn't misattributed, so those cases do not cause NPEs.
When the birth certificate does identify the official father, the child is still illegitimate, but its paternity is probably less likely to be misattributed than legitimate children are. If the child turns out to be missattributed after all, it still isn't because of the illegitimacy. Illegitimacy does not cause misattribution of paternity. The desire to make children legitimate does.
A child
who's actual father is different from the father listed on the birth
record has misattributed paternity, but is not illegitimate; it is the lawful child of a
married couple. That legitimate child will cause an NPE.
When a married couple registers their child, the child is legitimate. That
biological father is another than the official one, and that the
mother isn't married to that biological father does not matter. The law does not
deal with biological parents, but with official parents. What matters is whether
the child official father and mother are married; if its official parents are
married couple, the child is legitimate.
Illegitimacy does not cause NPEs, legitimacy does.
The desire to have a
legitimate child is one of the reasons that a mother will lie about who the
father of her child is. In fact, the legal reasons and social pressure to have a legitimate child
are such that even husbands who know that the child isn't theirs may
still decide to go along and officially claim the child as their own,
deliberately misattributing the child.
Thus, there is more reason to doubt a birth record of an legitimate child than
there is to doubt the birth record of an illegitimate one.
Illegitimacy does not cause NPEs, legitimacy does. An NPE is created when a child conceived during marital infidelity is registered as the legitimate child of the mother and her husband. If the child were registered honestly, as the illegitimate child of the mother and her lover, there would be no NPE.
An NPE occurs when biological father is different from the official one. Illegitimacy is a legal state of affairs that neither describes nor causes that difference. Whether a child is legitimate depends on whether the mother is married to the official father, not on whether she's married to the biological father, nor on whether the official father is the biological one. Illegitimacy does not cause NPEs.
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