do old people really do that?
I was asked again recently if I ever considered the possibility that Perley Day Wilder was the out-of-wedlock son of Laura Ann Wilder or Eliza Jane Wilder (or even Alice Wilder), not the biological son of James and Angeline Wilder, but raised by them as their own son. After all, Perley was born twelve years after his brother Almanzo, and Angeline would have been 48 at the time of his birth.

Men at age 56 with wives at age 48 quite possibly have had sex; they might even have worried about pregnancy; and there have actually been babies born to mothers of that age.

But, if there were male descendants of both Perley Wilder and Laura Howard living today, is it possible that they could be y-chromosome DNA tested for a common male ancestor, and would this determine if they had the same father, or possibly didn't?

It's not exactly the Jefferson-Hemmings case, but I'd watch an episode of The Maury Show if there was a "Little House Who's Your Daddy" segment.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:18 PM