How to enter someone's name when his mother did not marry the biological father or anyone else?

Question

An ancestor had my grandfather out of wedlock. She later married another man who was not my grandfather biological father.  My grandfather was given her maiden name which was passed on in the family, he was raised by his maternal grandfather..

Is there a way to get this in WikiTree?  All the guilty parties are dead.

Answer 1

It's very common. Your grandfather's name is his mother's maiden name which was his last name at birth. You can explain the out of wedlock in his biography. My grandfather was also born out of wedlock (his name is that of his mother) and he was raised by his aunts. His mother also had 3 other children and we have no idea who the fathers were.

Comments

And you can connect the father's profile to your grandfather's profile as "father." Just make sure that you don't create a "spouse" connection from the father to the mother.

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No, don't have anyone as your grandfather's father. Adding another family member in there will compromise the propagation of YDNA to the proper people. Your YDNA will dead-end with your grandfather, as is proper since you don't know who his father was. My grandfather's YDNA would also be a terminating line (if I could get my only male cousin from that line to test, which he won't!).

If you do add someone as "father" make sure it is set as a non-biological relationship to satisfy the requirements for DNA handling.

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I was under the impression that he knew who the biological father was.  If the biological father is known, he should be connected.

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True, my assumption was that there may have been a question of identity. But without some proof that this man was the father I would just add it in the notes in the bio and not link him as the known father. Word of mouth isn't always that reliable.