Revised August 2026. Note this page does not address Adoptees seeking help with their status under local laws. However for Australian readers there is an organization for adoptees support called 'Adoptee Rights Australia Inc'. For other jurisdictions an on-line search is suggested.
This page has information on 'Not Parent Expected' or Non-Paternal (NPE) events. DNA matches may report links to persons who are not currently family members, or that families believe are related and/or persons who have been adopted or estranged. Sometimes this is interesting news, or helpful to persons seeking their origins, but to some very troubling news or completely disbelieved.
The following text is taken from a blog on the FamilyTreeDNA web site and the link to the full article is HERE. It opens in a new window. In summary:-
"This article is not meant to answer every emotional, legal, or genealogical question that may come after unexpected DNA results. Instead, it is a starting point: a place to understand common terms, recognise what a DNA surprise can look like, and find resources for what comes next."
Another article on the Family Tree web site discusses DNA testing for Adoptees in particular. That is HERE and is well worth reading for such persons. It opens in a new window. Note both these articles have links to the US situation, especially for adoptees.
Currently I have been involved in several such cases. In one case it was clear where the link is from; the result of an encounter during WW2 given the matches but the persons tested had to keep this evidence from her family. In another case it was possible to establish a family match from an event that took place in WW1 where the probable father of the family line lived a few doors from the mother while her husband was a prisoner-of-war in Germany at the relevant time. In this case it was known in the family at the time but the child was brought up by her aunt and uncle as her parents and she only discovered this for herself when, at an advanced age, she saw her own birth certificate which showed that her aunt and uncle were not her parents.