If you've hit a wall with Ancestry/FindMyPast, is there any way to dig deeper?

[thebellsesmereldathebells]

I have no idea where to start, or whether it's even possible to find out more.

I have a really complicated family background - lots of lies, lots of secrets, lots of confusion. I am NC with my mother, for very good reasons, and that's not negotiable unfortunately.

My mother was fostered from a young age, and her early life/background are a mystery. She told very lurid, elaborate stories about them which subsequently proved to be untrue (I can't go into detail) but since I've been trying to find out about my grandparents it's been really difficult. My maternal grandmother seems to have changed her name repeatedly, she had children with several different men, not all of the name changes involved marriage, and at least one of the men she was with also changed his name - he died under a name that doesn't exist beforehand.

Do I jsut have to accept that I'm stumped? I'm not just being nosey, I really am interested in family history and am tracing my father's family back through the centuries as well.

What was the time period that you're looking at, and the location? You can find other sources such as stories in local newspapers, pictures from local schools, elderly people still living in the area - from an address you can look up neighbours who might still be there or whose house has passed to their children. You can also drill back through companies house records if anyone owns a business and find new addresses that way.

The people I'm trying to find out more about lived between about 1900 and 1970. I have tried some of what you suggest, and found absolutely nothing - I haven't looked at Companies House though. Thanks

It's difficult unless you have solid information that you know to be correct. Are there any elderly aunts/uncles still living that can remember any information? Quite a bit of information on trees in Ancestry UK is incorrect, people haven't researched thoroughly. My late Aunt appears on someone else's tree with different parents to the ones I know are correct. She was my late father's sister and I knew her personally, also her daughter is still alive and I know that the information on this other person's tree is incorrect.

Is where they lived local to you?

I managed to crack a wall by finding voters rolls in a local library. It wasn't ever concrete proof but Mary Smith and Mary Jones living at an address that I knew she'd lived at made it more likely that the Mary-Jane Davies and Jane-Mary Jones who lived there between the first two were also her.

One thing to remember is that not all records are available digitally yet, but will be in a couple of years. Sometimes it looks like you've hit a brick wall but if return to it after a year or two you can get much further because new records will have been digitised.

Sometimes when I’ve hit the wall I go wider and find information that way even though I’m not interested in those relatives per se
I’ve got some good clues from distant cousins etc

The Ancestry DNA can open doors and help you discover relatives and true relations between relatives but it can be gutting as you might find out secrets that are not very nice.

Would you consider hiring a professional genealogist to help you. They'll have many more resources to draw on.

www.familyhistory.co.uk/find-a-genealogist/

Don't pay a professional until you've tried the hivemind of Rootschat - all completely free and with a wealth of collective experience to throw at any genealogical puzzle.

www.rootschat.com

@HighburyHope

Don't pay a professional until you've tried the hivemind of Rootschat - all completely free and with a wealth of collective experience to throw at any genealogical puzzle.

www.rootschat.com

Oh wow! I had no idea that site exists - it looks amazing.

Hopefully OP might be able to find answers there.