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This is a will dated 1758. The will doesn't mention any wife, sons or daughters. It just says he leaves all to "KINSMAN Lawrence Rawstorn, son of John Rawstorne of Priestintax, when he is 25"

He also leaves a small legacy to "Nephew John Rawstorne"

Would you take this to mean John Rawstorne is the nephew and John's son Lawrence (technically great-nephew) is the 'kinsman'?

My mum was illegitimate, the result of a one-night stand, as a result my grandfather has never been known.

I have a 104cM 2nd/3rd cousin match, and after pooling my shared matches, he appears be in an unknown 'pool' which may correspond to my missing grandfather. The match is the same age as me, so as I understand it, the likelihood is that we share great-grandparents or great-great-grandparents.

Conveniently, I'm English and this match is Australian and only has one English grandparent, which narrows things down. Additionally, my Mum was born in Lancashire, and the match's English grandparent hails from Lancashire!

So my next step was to look at the match's great-grandparents and great-great grandparents in that line, and their other children, and follow a process of elimination to find somebody who was the right age, and in the right location, to get my grandma pregnant in Blackburn, Lancashire, in 1928.

I was able to eliminate quite a few people who:

• Died or emigrated before 1928
• Was an unrealistic age e.g. very old or very young in 1928

This has left me with only five possibilities:

Match's 1C3R b. 1896 – married 1923 and lived in Leicestershire. 32 in 1928.
THIS WOULD MAKE ME THE MATCH’S 3C1R – 4% CHANCE

Match’s GG-Grand-Uncle b. 1881 – married 1906 and lived in Shropshire. 47 in 1928.
THIS WOULD MAKE ME THE MATCH’S 2C2R – 22% CHANCE

Match’s 1C2R b. 1891 – single and living in Manchester in 1911, later moved to Yorkshire. 37 in 1928.
THIS WOULD MAKE ME THE MATCH’S 3C – 22% CHANCE

Match’s 1C2R b. 1893 – married 1919 in Manchester, stayed in Manchester. 35 in 1928.
THIS WOULD MAKE ME THE MATCH’S 3C – 22% CHANCE

Match’s 1C2R b. 1897 – did not marry, died London 1942. 31 in 1928.
THIS WOULD MAKE ME THE MATCH’S 3C – 22% CHANCE

My grandma was 35 in 1928 when the liaison took place so most of them are the right age. I can't tie any of them specifically to being in Blackburn in 1928, but it's not out of the realm of possibility that they were visiting for some reason.

I'll have to do more digging, but does my basic logic seem sound? Is there anything I've missed, any flaws? Thank you so much

I am looking at the Challinor family in Oldham. In 1841 there are 14 Challinors listed as living in Oldham on the census.

Many belong to one household - these are my direct ancestors who I know well - and can be discounted:

Head - William Challinor (45), wife Mary (45), children Joseph (20), William (15), Samuel (11), Ann (15), Mary (9), Mally (6), Elizabeth (3). Marriage and births all well-documented in local parish records, predominantly St Mary's Oldham and St Mary's Prestwich.

I am looking at the five 'other' Challinors in Oldham on the 1841 census, as I wish to establish if they have any connection with my own. These are, in 1841:

Household one:

Harriet Challender age 20
Cornelius Challender age 15
Ann Challender age 1
(All born in county)

Household two:

William Challinor – age 8 – living with Sarah and Hannah Bentley aged 35 and 9 respectively. Born in county.

Household three:
Margaret Challinor – age 7 – in Prestwich workhouse. Not born in county.

None of these individuals appear to be documented in parish records either in or outside of Oldham. I can't establish who they are or where they came from.

I have followed them forwards and have discovered a few parental names (which also don't seem to relate to any parish records) and that Cornelius does not appear to be a Challinor at all. Here are some select records going forwards:

Marriage for Harriet
March 1848 – Prestwich – James Robinson to Harriet Challender
Father: Richard Challender, Carter – witnesses Cornelius Healey, Martha Woolley

1851 census for Harriet and Ann - Oldham

Charlotte Calliner – head – widow - 53
James Robinson – son-in-law - 34
Harriet Robinson – daughter - 36
Ann Calliner – grand-daughter - 11
Mary Robinson grand-daughter – 2
(All born in Oldham)

Marriage for Cornelius Healey
Jun 1850 – Stockport – Cornelius Healey to Martha Woolley

1851 census for Cornelius – Stockport - the fact that the age tallies leads me to believe the Cornelius Challinor listed on the 1841 census was in fact Cornelius Healey, although I don't know why he was living with Harriet and Ann.

Cornelius Healy – Head – 25 – born Oldham
Martha Healy – Wife – 25 - born Stockport
John Wild – Son – 5 – born Oldham
Sarah Ann Woolley – Lodger – 25
James Woolley – Lodger – 2
Sarah Orvin Woolley – 2 months

Any assistance in untangling this or identifying who any of these various unidentified Challinors may relate to, or just pointers of where to look next, would be appreciated The individuals are:

Ann Challinor, born c. 1840 possibly to an unmarried Harriet
Harriet Challinor, born c. 1821 to Charlotte and Richard
Charlotte Challinor née Unknown, born c. 1798
Richard Challinor, born unknown, died before 1851
Margaret Challinor, born c. 1834
William Challinor, born c. 1833
Cornelius Healy / Challinor born c. 1826 - possibly not a Challinor at all - but connection unclear

Everything I have read suggests apprentices were not allowed to marry.

I am looking at a Thomas Challinor, who was an apprentice cutler in Sheffield, apprenticed 1728 and freedom 1746 so it was a long apprenticeship, 18 years. He would have been 30 by the end.

Unfortunately if he was not allowed to marry, that bulldozes a theory I'm building in which he started having children from 1739 onwards, including my 6xgreat-granddad 

I do have some corroboration that they're the same person, namely that all of those children were born to Thomas Challinor, Cutler, of Sheffield between 1739-1747 - and I have all the apprentice cutler records for Sheffield and he was the only Thomas Challinor apprenticed to be a cutler around that time (there was one over 100 years earlier and a couple a few decades later but that's it).

Before we begin, here are my known-knowns:

\- My mum is my mum - we both did our DNA and matched.

\- My dad is my dad - he hasn't done his DNA but one of his mum's cousins has and we matched.

**The Match**

This is a 318cM match which Ancestry suggests is a 2nd cousin - let's call her Jane. There is also a 174cM match who is Jane's daughter.

Jane didn't come up as a match for my mum so this is on my dad's side.

Jane's about 50 years old and me and her daughter are about 30.

The proximity of the match and our our ages suggest we either share my great-grandparents or my great-great grandparents (however Jane being older, they may be a closer relation to her).

**The Problem**

I have Jane's public tree going back to great-great-grandparents and there is no match with any of my own great-great-grandparents.

There is a strong geographical match - most of the people in both our trees were born in the same town.

Additionally, Jane is in a sizeable pool of shared matches, some with extensive trees, however **I cannot establish any shared ancestor with any of them.** In fact, I haven't been able to establish any shared ancestor on my dad's paternal line...

Conversely I have been able to rule out my dad's entire maternal side, as there are clear pools of shared matches on this side where the shared ancestor is obvious.

**Therefore** I think I am now looking at a large number of shared matches (30) on my dad's paternal side, one as close as 2nd cousin, and with a fully available tree, and yet I am unable to find any common ancestor.

Additionally, a lot of Jane's shared matches appear to themselves share a particular surname in common, however I've researched my tree extensively and (I'd like to say) reliably and this name never crops up.

The extreme conclusion of all this would be that my dad's dad is potentially not his dad. However I'd appreciate anybody looking over my logic, as there may be pitfalls or misconceptions I am not aware of.

I'd really appreciate any thoughts and thank you for getting this far!