The Lindbergh Case is interesting, yes. But not exactly the same, I think, since Lindbergh himself was a presence in the lives of his German family until he died. Weren't there photos of him with them? Letters in his hand to them? Didn't he surreptitiously visit them during their childhood? If I remember correctly, there was a predispostion on the part of Reeve and the surviving "legitimate" Lindberghs to accept them even before the DNA tests.
But of course the larger answer, that their claims to identity were proved by DNA, remains.
There is a case which meets what I am looking for as an example. Has anyone read Annette Gordon-Read on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings? For years there had been an oral tradition among the African-American community in Albemarle County, Virginia, that Jefferson had maintained a long-term relationship with Hemmings, a slave who had come to Monticello as part of his wife's dowry (she was also Martha Jefferson's half-sister, don't ask). Over the course of his life after Martha died, he and Sally produced at least five children. Allegations about their relationship were flying thick and fast from at least 1803 on, but Jefferson never commented upon it, and we have nothing from Sally Hemmings, either. Obviously it would be more palatable if they were having a romantic affair, but the fact is that she was his slave, and by that definition, unable to refuse him, so . . .
Their children were kept as slaves. Some were allowed to "run away" from Monticello once they became young adults and had been taught a trade on the estate. The remainder, and their mother, were freed by the terms of Jefferson's will when he died in 1826. In a Charlottesville census in the early 1830s Sally and a son, Easton (I think; I am doing this from memory, so bear with me) were listed as white. During the course of her research, Gordon-Reed discovered that nearly all of the remaining children had chosen to "pass" as white in society, since their parentage gave them that option. Only Madison Hemmings did not, and after the Civil War he gave an interview to an Ohio newspaper in which he revealed that Jefferson and Sally Hemmings were his parents, and expressed some bitterness at his father's treatment of him and his siblings.
The legitimate Jefferson family line was aware of the Hemmings claim and discounted it, as did every historian writing about Jefferson until well into the 20th century. In part this was due to an idealization of Jefferson the man, and in part to the racist aspects of the society in which they were writing. It was simply unacceptable that Jefferson had conducted a long-term affair with a black woman, despite what might have been an affinity for her based upon her resemblance to his dead wife.
When DNA testing confirmed that there was indeed a relationship to Jefferson's mother (shades of Anastasia!), the Jeffersonians were falling all over themselves to pin the rap on Jefferson's nephew, anyone but Jefferson. Gordon-Reed, a lawyer, did absolutely brilliant historical research that demonstrated Jefferson had been present at Monticello nine months before each of Hemming's various births. There is now widespread acceptance among historians (including Joseph Ellis, who wrote American Sphinx just before Gordon-Reed published, and who had concluded that Jefferson could not have had this relationship. He conceded that Gordon-Reed had proved it by using DNA combined with historical evidence.}
This, I think, is what we are waiting to happen in the Andersen case. I remember thinking when I read Gordon-Reed how fascinating some of the parallels were.
But here's the deal: the DNA was accepted by the historians only after the historical evidence was marshalled that proved his presence at Monticello. Prior to that there was widespread revulsion at the idea that Jefferson could have had the relationship. Why? Well, it sticks in the craw to discover that the man who wrote the American Declaration of Independence could have kept his own children as slaves. There is also the inherent racism. African-Americans whose ancestors were held as slaves have no problem accepting the fact that there are whites among their forebearers. It was a fact of life for those held in that situation. But there was a reluctance to admit that the reverse was true, i.e. that several of the First Families of Virginia contained black members. Even today the "legitimate" descendants of the Jeffersons refuse to allow the Hemmings descendants burial in the family cemetery.
Again, this debate could have continued for another 150 years without the introduction of DNA testing. There was a lot of you say potato, I say potahto back-and-forth about it until science entered the fray. But what ultimately tipped the matter for historians was the DNA combined with the historical evidence, that pushed it to virtually definitive that Jefferson had been the father of her children.
