Should I just give up?
Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2025 1:37 pm
Thank you for accepting me into the forum. I hope I'm posting correctly.
I would welcome advice to whether to give up or not please. I have been searching for my 2x Gt. Grandfather for more than 10 years now and have very little information about him.
His name was Hugh John Hughes. I have no idea of his date of birth or his place of birth but I'm quite sure it was Wales.
I have a marriage cert for his marriage to my 2x Gt. Grandmother Catherine Smith nee Sanderson. They married on 11th August 1873 in Fleetwood, Lancashire. It says full age and that his father was Robert Hughes, a farmer. They were both widowed. Their son Henry Wynn Hughes, my Gt. Grandfather, was born I think October 1873 in Fleetwood. On Henry Wynn's baptism record he's John Hughes, not Hugh John. Occupation, a joiner. By the 1881 census, Catherine is living with her children from her first marriage and Henry Wynn. Hugh John isn't on it. Catherine seems confused as to her status on it, she said her name was Smith, that was crossed out and Hughes added and she said she was a widow and that's also crossed out and married added.
I did a DNA test 6 years ago and have four matches from the same family in America, the closest being 2nd cousin 1x removed. Funnily enough, they have a chap who was born in Wales in 1878 and those who have a tree haven't been able to get a father for him. It seems odd to me that we have a Welsh ancestor too and we're completely stuck. I've spent years going through census records and births but if I had come across him, I'd have no idea if he was the correct one. I've even wondered if Hugh John Hughes was a fraud and that wasn't his name at all, he appeared in Fleetwood, Lancashire and disappeared again.
Apologies for the long first post, should I just give up and leave him as a brick wall? (I have all the information about Catherine)
Thank you for reading.
I would welcome advice to whether to give up or not please. I have been searching for my 2x Gt. Grandfather for more than 10 years now and have very little information about him.
His name was Hugh John Hughes. I have no idea of his date of birth or his place of birth but I'm quite sure it was Wales.
I have a marriage cert for his marriage to my 2x Gt. Grandmother Catherine Smith nee Sanderson. They married on 11th August 1873 in Fleetwood, Lancashire. It says full age and that his father was Robert Hughes, a farmer. They were both widowed. Their son Henry Wynn Hughes, my Gt. Grandfather, was born I think October 1873 in Fleetwood. On Henry Wynn's baptism record he's John Hughes, not Hugh John. Occupation, a joiner. By the 1881 census, Catherine is living with her children from her first marriage and Henry Wynn. Hugh John isn't on it. Catherine seems confused as to her status on it, she said her name was Smith, that was crossed out and Hughes added and she said she was a widow and that's also crossed out and married added.
I did a DNA test 6 years ago and have four matches from the same family in America, the closest being 2nd cousin 1x removed. Funnily enough, they have a chap who was born in Wales in 1878 and those who have a tree haven't been able to get a father for him. It seems odd to me that we have a Welsh ancestor too and we're completely stuck. I've spent years going through census records and births but if I had come across him, I'd have no idea if he was the correct one. I've even wondered if Hugh John Hughes was a fraud and that wasn't his name at all, he appeared in Fleetwood, Lancashire and disappeared again.
Apologies for the long first post, should I just give up and leave him as a brick wall? (I have all the information about Catherine)
Thank you for reading.
it takes a lot of time to crack some rels 
