OK, this is what I know about my husband's Best connections: Mary Best (my husband's bio mother) was born 5th June 1942 at 7 Long Lane, Littlemore, Oxford (District of Ploughley, ref 3a 2990) The mother was unmarried, and was named on the original birth certificate as Mary Ethel Best. I have seen the original birth certificate and the baby Mary Best's subsequent adoption papers. One evening a long time ago now, probably some time in about 1988 my husband Jim (we were not married then but lived nextdoor to each other in an Oxfordshire village) decided to see if we could find the address where the baby was born, and we found it with ease, but it was unoccupied. However a neighbour came out and asked us what we were doing and we explained that we were looking for the Best family who once lived there. We were given the address of a Miss Best who lived just around the corner, and I wrote her a letter, and she subsequently phoned me... To cut a long story short I was put in touch with Mary Ethel Best's brother's widow who lived somewhere in Cheshire or North Wales and she gave me quite a lot of detail; she told us that she was present at the baby's birth (as the house belonged to her!) and Mary Ethel had subsequently married someone called "Collins" and had died in 1985, so I sent for her death certificate, only to find that she was Ethel Mary Collins, and not Mary Ethel. I simply assumed from this that she probably had swapped the names around on the birth certificate to prevent detection at some later date. Jim's mother disapproved of his relationship with me as I was a single parent and older than he is...and then I discovered that Jim was illegitimate too, (his mother had told him that she was a widow). Believe me, I was not proud of making this discovery (Jim had never seen his full birth certificate and I obtained it..!) and as a consequence she never spoke to me again. Jim was terribly upset by all of this so I felt quite disinclined to continue researching at that time. We moved right away from Oxfordshire, got married here in Wales, and concentrated on bringing up our family - and a grand-daughter now! Recently my own family tree has started to take off again and I decided to have another crack at Jim's. I've just found the marriage of Ethel Mary Best to Thomas Hertbert Collins, (In Buckinghamshire, which I knew about, and where Ethel died) which states Ethel's father as James Herbert Best, and he is also one of the witnesses to the marriage. Ethel's age is given as 29 which makes her born in 1917 if she has given the right age, which is now doubtful - but I can't imagine her father being party to a deception as far as he was concerned there would be no reason for it because he was unaware of Ethel having had a baby...of course, as the marriage took place in Buckinghamshire and not in the North East which is where we knew they came from, anyone could have masqueraded as the father...the possibilities are endless aren't they? Next I tried to find Ethel Mary's birth, which is stated by the informant on her death certificate as 19th November 1916 in Cockfield, Bishop Auckland. I sent for a copy of the certificate, giving that information and the father's name as given on the marriage cert but the GRO could not find it in 1915, 1916, or 1917. The informant on the death cert is Ella Maureen Sanderson Best, described as sister (the relation in Cheshire confirmed to me in our phone conversation in the 80s that there was a sister called Ella). Now I can't find a birth for Ella, either, although I have found an Eleanor, with parents James Best and Ethel Summers, who also had a daughter Ethel born in 1916 (info from Ancestry.com) so either it's the wrong birth or the wrong father's details on the marriage certificate? A birth has also been found for a Mary Best, mother's maiden surname Winter, Dec qr 1916 in Auckland...but I have no way of knowing who I am looking for? If the Winter one is correct then this would be truly ironic, as my family here in Wales, is Winter..... Can anyone help me try to unravel this mystery that has been bugging me for 20 years? Lindsay