Family history research has become a very popular hobby during the last few years due to the ready access to records of births and marriages. Many people have rigorously traced their ancestors back to 1700 and earlier, corresponding to some 12 generations. The principal motivation of most amateur genealogists is to learn about the lives of their forebears and they trust these ‘legal’ records without question and do not usually acknowledge that cuckoldry may have occurred and that their true ancestors may not have been the ones recorded.