Years ago I read about a late-19th c defrocked monk (this is another story from Failing Memory Lane, btw) who took to doing family trees. There was a big uptick in interest at that time, a lot of the surname books were done circa 1890.
Anyway, to satisfy his customer, he invented a king of France, and continued to add invented children of of the imaginary ruler, none of whom succeeded their father. In the mid- to late- 20th century, people are still discovering that scam as they retrace the family tree inherited from some earlier relative of theirs. :^)
When our local library had free access to much of the Ancestry resources, I found and read the application stuff filled out by a known cousin (I never met her, and she lived in a more easterly state) to join the DAR, about a hundred years ago. My info matched hers, so that was cool, I didn’t know she’d done that.
Running into a posh ancestor wasn’t something I expected, I figured my modest research would eventually run out of archival records for each line, and about the only thing I’d ever know about these was some or most of their vital info, because we’ve been from the po’ side of town since before there was a town.
When it happened, wowee. But again, just because they’ve got a written pedigree (not to mention references and info in dusty old history books) doesn’t mean they weren’t crawling all over everything that moved. :^)
LOL!
I’m sure some illegitimate children were ‘covered up’ for what we would call ‘charitable’ reasons. Human nature has always been given to indiscretions, but also to virtues.
I don’t mean to insult anyone - genealogy is a fascinating study and knowing one’s own gives one a marvelous window on - and personal interest in - history.
My Grandmother, who raised me, was born in 1890, and lived until 1995. Her family stories, handed down from as far back as the Civil War and beyond, were my great fortune to hear and remember.
But we can never know from where/what we really come, in terms of blood.
All we can count on are the positive values and culture we’ve inherited and, hopefully, can pass on.