Dead ends and how to progress

[WeatherwaxOn]

I wonder if anyone has any ideas of how to break through a dead end on an ancestor.

This is all the info I have on my gt-gt-grandfather, and I can't seem to make any further progress.

Born around 1838/1839 in Hertfordshire
Had a son 1875 and his name on the birth certificate, combined with his occupation tally with an entry on the 1871 census.
Is on the 1881 census with wife and son.
In 1882 his wife died and he married a relative of hers. He gives his age on the marriage certificate as 44. The address and occupation tally with census entries for the previous year.
He's on the 1891 census with his second wife.
He died in 1898. The address on the death record + occupation link to the 1891 census.

There is no record of banns or marriage to the mother of his child.
There is no record of any other children.
On the marriage certificate he cites a name for his father that I cannot match to anyone living or dead in Hertfordshire that had a son of the same name.

I've not had any DNA matches to anyone else with this family name*, despite having registered my details/interest over 2 years ago.

*Other than 2 cousins and a sibling who are of my generation.

My thought process is that either
He was illegitimate and the father's name is a red herring
His name isn't what he says it was
He was a bigamist (hence no marriage to first 'wife')
He wasn't from where he said he was from.

I can't find him on the electoral register.
There are a number of people with the same name (it's not uncommon) but so far, I've eliminated all of them by tallying census returns/marriages/births to the information I have - for example, there are several people of the same name who are on the electoral register but when I check those addresses to the census returns that I have, and the spouse I know he had, they can be eliminated.

I thought if I put this out to the hive mind, someone might have some bright ideas, and suggest something I've overlooked.

I've found some of those. Another ancestor on a different part of the family always recorded on census and birth certificates for her children as Susannah. Her birth name was Phoebe Rebecca. Took me years to find her, trawling through the records.

I've looked for Harry, Henry, Hanry, Herry, Hy, H, as well as Charles, Edward, Edwin and combinations of Henry with variants of those.

On Henry's marriage certificate to Jane he's signed in a bold, confident, literate hand. On the census returns his name is recorded correctly (assuming that is his real name). The death info and inquest all record him correctly.

There's a potential person matching on the 1841 census, where the relationship isn't logged, but I can't trace that person through with any conviction to anyone later. He's in the right area at the right sort of time, but there's nothing to link him to "my" Henry other than the same name - and Henry Chapman's are two a penny in the 1800s.

Back on p2 of this thread, I found a Henry Matton who COULD be the Henry Chapman who was a baby in Ware in the 1841 census. But there's a potential death for Henry Matton in 1864.

If I were in your boat, I think I'd get the death certificate for that Henry Matton to see if his place of death or the name of the informant makes it clear whether he belonged to the family I found. A digital cert is available (£3).At least that way you would probably be able to definitely rule him out. Otherwise he is a tempting candidate!!

Yes, I remember you mentioning him. He's on my list of "leads to follow up".
Thanks for the reminder, I'll see about ordering the cert.

@mauvishagain I ordered the document.
It says Henry Matton was a 25 year old valet who died of 'congestion of the brain' at 1 Belvedere Place. The informant is a C (or G) Ward, of 3 Belvedere place.
When I look at the 1861 census, the Henry Matton you mention was living at 1 Belvedere Cottages which is adjacent to 1 Belvedere Pl, so I think it's the same person.

Ok, shame it isn't your man but at least it does firmly rule out his mother as your ancestor.

Picking this one back up again as something that occurred to me is that when Henry says he was born in Hertfordshire, it's possible that the place he was born WAS in Herts. at the time, but now is not as I'm aware that county boundaries change.
My question now is, would anyone know if there is anywhere (short of overlaying maps myself, or heading to the Herts. archive) that I can find a map online which would show me the county boundary changes over time?
That might give me some other places to consider.
I've already had a look at Essex (some potential people found and I'm going to go to the records office to explore those), and Cambridgeshire (nothing useful suggesting 'my' Henry). But presumably there are other counties bordering where some villages/hamlets have moved in or out of Herts.?

Just occasionally, Wikipedia can be your friend:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hertfordshire_boundary_changes

Changes to the county bounderies between 1844 and 1994.

Thankyou! I took a quick look and overlooked the lost of places at the end as I was expecting to see a map. Now need to go through the 1841 and 1851 census returns for all of those...