Brick wall in finding father

[Gat1]

Hi,

I have hit a brick wall which i fear i will never break through.  My late nan never talked about her father other than to say he was not a nice man and was never around, yet she was one of 5 children, all of which had their unmarried mothers surname and no father on their birth certificate. They were all born between 1914 and 1934.  One of them, the youngest, is still living but when i wrote and asked they said they did not know for sure who their father was - they had an idea but weren't willing to give me a name.
Where do i go from here?

[Radcliff]

horrible word I know
but I found a bastardy court order for my Grandfather in the archives
this was in 1920
so if you know where they were born the archives there may have some documentation relating to the family,it would have been very hard for their mother to bring them up alone
Good luck

[Gat1]

Thanks. Yes, i know where they were born (North Walsham, Norfolk) and i even know the road that they lived on (one was born in 1920 too). What documents would i be looking for? In your case it was a court order but what would this be for - child support payments?

[shellyesq]

You might want to try autosomal DNA testing if the paper trail fails.  If you can test the oldest available person on that line, you'd be more likely to get matches, but it could work for you too.

[chempat]

Did any of them put a Father's name on their marriage certificate?

Have you found them in 1939?

[Treetotal]

Do you know if any of them used a middle name that could be a surname?
Carol

[Gat1]

No father on marriage certificates. From what i know it seem that he wasn't liked and in most cases, wasn't even known to the children, except to my nan. No luck in 1939 but the middle name is a good point - it may offer a clue. Thanks.

[louisa maud]

What about Electoral registers over the years you know where they lived, you just might find  male living in the same address, just a thought

Louisa Maud

[Spidermonkey]

Have you tried searching for the name of your gt grandmother in the historic newspapers?  There might be write ups about court cases etc that would name the father.