This is a true life story involving mystery, bigamy, adoption and DNA. The secretive life of Jesse Oppenheimer, alias John Stedman (1887-1950) was unraveled using family research techniques that are useful to all genealogists. In this talk, Karen will reflect on the trajectory of research beginning with his son, Jon Stedman (1933-2009), whose papers she was hired to organize five years ago. Though his DNA was tested in 2001, an upgrade in 2013 helped an adopted child find her birth mother, and a child conceived by in-vitro fertilization almost 40 years ago, who is now working to find his birth father. Analysis of Jon’s papers and a description of strategies developed to move forward on the project highlight the changing nature of family history research.