My Family's Secret: Sir Paul Nurse

[@rodhogan1342]

Absolutely fascinating, what a story. All credit to the professor that he realises that it was all done for his protection first and foremost. Thank heavens we live in more enlightened times, and well done Turi.

[@suewalksthebluffs]

His family clearly wanted to keep him, but had to protect reputations to make it possible. Fortunately they were able to pull that off without ‘spilling the beans’. It was a fairly common occurrence. The exact same situation happened a couple of generations back in my family, only the young man in question was devastated by the revelation. I can only hope, for his sake, that he eventually came to see it in the magnanimous light that Sir Paul does.

[@joellenbroetzmann9053]

After doing some of my family genealogy and helping others get started, all I can say is there are no boring family histories.

[@JoannaLouise200]

That is one of the most amazing conversations I have heard in a very long time! Two enlightened and fascinating professors speaking with compassion, understanding, curiosity, and with a wonderful sense of humour to round it all off. Thank you Turi for such a spellbinding & captivating podcast. It shows that, with incredible time & dedicated research input, along with advances in techniques, incredible progress has been achieved within this field of DNA science :)

[@marycahill546]

There was a lot more sex going on in "the good old days" than people realize. Many married couples were pregnant before their wedding, and there must have been many cases like this as well. Further, the orphanages were full. He was lucky his grand parents were in a position to raise him as their own.

[@bridgwll]

Not surprised at all. Nothing shocked my grandmother when she heard of many things as it all happened in her days.

[@pennymitchell8523]

Exploring my family tree ...when I worked out births and marriages I have found several pregnancies before marriage on my Irish side. My grandmother married within weeks of giving birth to my uncle....but he grew up celebrating his birthday several months later.

[@staceysparadise]

The "'Thank you Mum" got me! Uncovering 'secrets' takes so much work. Well done Turi. Im searching (2 years in) for our last name lost in the 1850s with my great great grandfather. We know he is Irish on his patrineal line through Big Y-700 but its so hard with low 30 cM and less matches.

[@SamStone1964]

Have you grouped the likely suspects into colour coded groups and clicked on all shared matches. Ancestry pro tools shows the relationship between your matches.

[@karenidesoh5646]

This is such a touching story. Thank you for sharing such a personal aspect of your life and yet such a common story from that era. I hope in doing so you expand a younger generations knowledge and empathy and gives peers who grew up in similar situations a sense of community and acceptance.

[@kathyaakananabluebird]

Love this story and well done researching and well done Sir for adjusting to this news so well.

[@Pkeats817]

Women, old and young need support as mothers. There is no shame in bringing life into the world.

[@ayishas4385]

Amen!

[@Pkeats817]

@@ayishas4385 💕

[@BitterSweetBarb]

I AM SITTING HERE WITH TEARS STREAMING DOWN MY FACE AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHY. I TOOK DNA TESTS TO FIND A HALF-BROTHER AND ENDED UP FINDING A WHOLE MESS WHERE IT NEVER OCCURRED TO ME THAT THERE WAS ONE 😭😭😭.

[@Ponkelina]

Incredible story

[@peachygal4153]

I bet most of us have a story like this in our history, somewhere in the family tree was someone who had a baby and was not married and ether their parents or possibly a sibling adopted them. I read of one case where someone discovered their great grandmother was her father's affair baby, but his wife agreed to take her in and raise her as their child. another one a set of great great grandparents died from an epidemic and a sibling took in their children. You know an Aunt Polly/Tom Sawyer situation. but the kids took the sibling's surname.

[@peachygal4153]

We think my husband 's GG grandfather was actually his ggg Grandfather. At 52 and widowered, he married a 23-year-old woman. One month later my husband's great grandfather was born. Thanks to DNA tests we discovered my husband's family matched his first wife's sister's descendants. Of course, this is circumstantial, but we know he had a 24-year-old son married with already 2 small children when he married this young woman. We think the "half-brother" from the first marriage was his ancestor's bio dad. That this guy got an unmarried woman pregnant, and his widowed dad married her since he was already married so the baby would be legitimate.

[@maxiculture]

A ripping yarn and I can't help thinking has a whole dollop of Norfolkness in it. I say this after spending the last 4 years sorting DNA matches in order to discover a missing grandfather and explain a strong genetic link to East Anglia found along the way. My unknown grandfather was born in Norfolk, father unknown 😅

[@hs7921]

People repeat patterns from the previous generation without even knowing they are doing it. Then the shame and need for secrecy kicks in. Then the woman gets “sent away”. I hope our sense of morality is more flexible in this century, but I have a lingering suspicion that there continues to be some serious negativity around pregnancies out of a ‘relationship’ context.

[@toocoolforbanshee618]

Hello

[@robertlawrence4827]

Im not sure of turi heritage but if it isnt Irish then ill be surprised

[@cherylbrooks7005]

❤😊❤

[@Truebritify]

Really interesting. So glad we don't have the stigma now of unmarried mothers. I am old enough to remember those times. I wonder where he inherited his above average intelligence from.

[@pumlambiza3922]

This is such an interesting story and shows how gullible our generation was. You can never tell these ones born yesterday 😂 they know who their mothers are.

[@tedda6171]

The sad thing is Turi and Paul that you were the last generation where this sort of situation would have been kept secret - because now if a girl has an unwanted pregnancy she just aborts it 🥲. How many Nobel Prize winners has humanity lost 😓.

[@HeavenlyWools]

Do you seriously think there was no such thing as abortion in those days? It's much more common for young women to keep their babies than it was then - they were much more commonly either concealed like Sir Paul, aborted, or adopted out.

[@zoeolsson5683]

@tedda6171 what about the lad who left his contribution in a lass who he was not married to. Takes two to tango .... But a lot of boyos just want their fun and no responsibility. How hard is in not to leave a sample of yourself in another person's body that could have serious economic impact on that person The thing is we do not as a society actually appropriately fund women for the unpaid caring that they do.

[@peggygraham6129]

And how many criminals? Many unwed mothers keep their babies and have public assistance.It's a choice.

[@claytonmorada]

That is not true. We have a backlog of adoptions and foster kids. Many mothers try to keep their babies but don't have the money. Then the children are older and people want infants more so we have a backlog in every state for adoption. Also, abortion also helps women who miscarry a wanted child. Families still keep these secrets as we have a big incest problem as well. So, you are just ignorant.