paternity and custody

[illinoisdad]

i have been divorced for about 5 years now. my ex lives in wisconsin and I live in illinois. the divorce was in wisconsin. SHe has made seeing the kids pretty impossible. i live 200 miles away and i would like to look into trying to get custody of my one child who is 14. she desperately wants to live with my wife and I , but the ex has full custody. my first question is.. I never signed the birth certificate because she told me that she wasnt mine at first. she has changed her mind a hundred times since then. i pay child support for both children and have never contested this even though no dna test was done. if I go for custody and its found out that shes not mine (god forbid) do i have any rights??

[mistoffolees]

That's a legal question. You should either see an attorney or ask Socrateaser:
http://deltabravo.net/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=106

[janM]

In some states, a child born during the marriage is considered yours.
I would check your state laws. If child support is court ordered, I would think the court considers her yours.

I would consult with an attorney. You could probably sue her for contempt of parenting time at the least.

[WHN]

My husband has three kids, was never married to the mother and did sign the birth certificates only to find out later that any of the three may or may not be his...That being said when we went to court (he's always had the kids, when she left she didn't take them or pay child support)  because she'd decided she wanted to make his life difficult by saying she knew for a fact his oldest was not his and she'd take her and he'd never see her again, blah blah blah.  Okay to make a long story short, when we went to a lawyer he told us that unless he signed a declaration of paternity (not a birth certificate, apparently it means nothing - in this state, at least) that it was entirely possible that the mother could do just that EXCEPT because  he was the one raising the children and the one in question at that time was already 5 yrs old, that he was, by all rights, that childs father.  He'd housed, raised and bore the financial burden of all three children.  In any case, I'd think that if you're paying child support for the child then you do have a leg to stand on.  
Get an attorney...Sign and file a declaration of paternity for your daughter and I'd say that should help you a lot.  

I can only speak from experience so take it for what it's worth.  Good luck.