For years, it was a running joke in Matthew’s family. His dad, with his distinctive brown eyes and black hair, looked nothing like his parents, who both had piercing blue eyes. “Dad looked nothing like his parents,” was the common refrain, Matthew, a teacher from southern England, recalls. It turns out, the family joke held a startling truth.
Matthew’s father had been accidentally swapped with another baby in a hospital nearly 80 years ago. Tragically, he passed away late last year without ever learning the extraordinary story of his true origins.
The discovery began during the pandemic when Matthew, whose real name is not being used, decided to explore lingering questions about his family history. Prompted partly by reports of similar cases uncovered by modern technology, he sent a saliva sample to a genealogy company for analysis.
The Unfolding Mystery
The results from the DNA test introduced a host of unfamiliar names. Matthew found his record entered into the vast online database, revealing unexpected close genetic matches. “Half of the names I’d just never heard of,” he says. A jolt of suspicion ran through him. “I thought, ‘That’s weird’, and called my wife to tell her the old family joke might be true after all.”
To investigate further, Matthew asked his father to submit a DNA sample. His father’s results confirmed an even stronger genetic link to the same group of mysterious family members Matthew had initially discovered.
Matthew began exchanging messages with two women the genealogy site identified as his father’s genetic cousins. All three were perplexed, trying to understand how they could possibly be related through known family lines.
Unraveling the Past Through Records
Working together, Matthew and the cousins embarked on a historical deep dive. They eventually tracked down birth records from 1946, just months after the end of World War Two. Their search led them to documents from a hospital in east London where Matthew’s father was registered.
Crucially, they discovered that one day after his father’s documented birth date, another baby boy was registered at the very same hospital. This other baby carried a relatively unusual surname that matched the mystery branch of the family tree revealed by the DNA tests. This link was later corroborated by birth certificates Matthew obtained.
It was a moment of profound clarity. “I realised straight away what must have happened,” Matthew explains. “The only explanation that made sense was that both babies got muddled up in hospital.” Driven by a love for puzzles and understanding the past, Matthew and the two women meticulously constructed a new family tree based on all the DNA matches, piecing together a history hidden for decades.
How Could This Happen? Historical Context
While stories of babies accidentally swapped in hospital were rarely reported at the time, historical context sheds light on how such errors could occur in mid-20th century Britain. Before World War Two, most babies were born at home with midwives or family doctors present. However, as the country prepared for the launch of the NHS in 1948, hospital births gradually became more common.
A standard practice in hospitals was separating newborns from their mothers for periods to allow mothers rest, often caring for infants in centralized nurseries. According to Terri Coates, a retired midwifery lecturer, identification methods were less sophisticated than today. Cards tied to the end of cots listed the baby’s name, mother’s name, birth date, time, and weight. “Where cots rather than babies were labelled, accidents could easily happen,” Ms Coates notes. With multiple staff members feeding or tending to infants in a nursery, a baby could easily be returned to the wrong cot.
Identification methods attached directly to the baby, like wrist name-tapes or strings of china beads, were only beginning to be recommended in midwifery textbooks from the mid-1950s and didn’t become standard practice until the mid-1960s. This highlights a period where hospital systems were evolving, and robust identification procedures for newborns were not yet universally implemented.
More Cases Emerge Thanks to DNA
Matthew’s father’s case is not an isolated incident being brought to light by genetic testing. BBC News is now aware of at least five cases of babies accidentally swapped in UK maternity wards between the late 1940s and the 1960s.
One case involves Susan, who received compensation from an NHS trust after a home DNA test revealed her swap in the 1950s. Another historical account from 1951 tells of Jan Daly, whose mother immediately knew the baby she was given was not hers, recognizing distinguishing features like forceps marks. Despite initial disbelief from staff, her insistence led to the correction, though the experience was deeply traumatic, and no apology was offered.
Lawyers anticipate that the increasing affordability and popularity of consumer genetic testing will lead to more such hidden family histories being uncovered in the future.
Living with the Truth
Matthew’s father, who had been an insurance agent and a keen amateur cyclist, lived out his retirement alone, his health declining in his later years. He died at age 78 without ever knowing he had been swapped at birth or that he had celebrated his birthday a day early for nearly eight decades.
Matthew wrestled with the decision of whether to share the truth with his father. Ultimately, he decided against it. “I just felt my dad doesn’t need this,” he explains. “He had lived 78 years in a type of ignorance, so it didn’t feel right to share it with him.”
Since his father’s passing, Matthew has connected with his newly discovered genetic first cousin and her daughter in the West Country. They met for coffee, sharing old photos and “filling in missing bits of family history,” finding they got on well.
However, Matthew has made the conscious decision not to contact the family of the man his father was likely swapped with. He notes that they haven’t taken DNA tests themselves. “If you do a test by sending your saliva off, then there’s an implicit understanding that you might find something that’s a bit of a surprise,” Matthew says. “Whereas with people who haven’t, I’m still not sure if it’s the right thing to reach out to them – I just don’t think it’s right to drop that bombshell.”
Matthew’s discovery underscores how readily available DNA testing is now rewriting family histories, revealing long-held secrets, and presenting complex ethical considerations for those who uncover them.
References
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gexw7l7rwo
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gexw7l7rwo
- https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2018/05/michelle-zabat-dad-jokes
- https://www.couplesinstitute.com/does-your-partner-drive-you-nuts-the-passive-aggressive-personality/
- https://www.btr.org/my-husband-says-im-the-problem/
