Finally after searching through hundreds of gedcoms of my AU DNA matches

Question

Last night I finally get a good match 74cms and it has a name that is in my tree. Their gedcom only has 6 names in it so I make contact. Low and behold this person is from the local area. Although he knows very little about his family he gives me his grandfathers name and DOB. Ernest Blockley 12th August 1934 - Leicester England.(my great grandmother is Sarah Jane Blockley born Broughton Astley Leicestershire in 1867).

So I start to search and find his parents - Aurther Blockley and Evelyn Annie Hercock - this is my first spanner in the works ( my own Grandmother is a Hercock . So now I don't know if the match comes from my mother or fathers side or even both as there are 2 segments).

Second spanner in the works there are several Aurther Blockleys born in Leicestershire around the right time. One of these being from Broughton Astley so a relative of mine. So far I have not been able to confirm which is correct.

Third spanner - although I find Evelyn Hercocks parents (charles and Elizabeth Hercock) I get stuck again.

Still nobody said genealogy was easy!!!

Answer 1

Remember to use

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp

as this will give the mother's maiden name and so may be of use.

Answer 2

I would echo Ros's comment about using the GRO birth indexes to get the mother's maiden name.

In complex cases like this you may have to resort to ordering copy certs from the GRO. The birth cert gives at least the mother's name and if legitimate the father's too. PDF is cheaper than paper.

A marriage cert gives the names of the fathers of the bride and groom and can be matched against their birth certs to make sure you have the right ones. You also get the ages of the bride and groom though earlier ones often just say "Full" (21+).

If you are very lucky a pay web site you use may have an image of a marriage cert, and baptism records can be handy too.

Good luck

    Tim