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The Hales link seems valid then but I'm a little concerned as 380 isn't enough for a full 1st cousin (the range is 396-1,396), a half 1C or the child of a full 1c would fit with that amount. I've got the odd match to families with Navenby links but I don't think there's anything that crosses into your tree, at least not at a level where there is much chance of sharing DNA. I'm adopted and both my parents are NPE's so 380 is about as high as my matches go with the exception of a half sister who tested to try and help sort our tangled paternal side. 

If you have tested with Ancestry and use facebook I'd suggest looking for a group called 'DNA Family Finders UK', it's a private group with search angels who help with unknown parent/grandparent scenarios but they can help with tasks like grouping matches. Everything in the group is private and you can post anonymously if you wish. It wouldn't hurt to join and read a few posts to see what the group is about and how they may be able to help, there's no obligation to ask for help but it's an option that might be worth looking at.

Interesting what you say about the first cousin 380cM. My mum's only sibling had two daughters and this is the only one of the two who has done her DNA. My mum and aunt were the daughters of Frederick Jr's son, Sidney.

I will certainly have a look at the FB group you mention. I need somewhere like that - a place that understands what a novice I am!

Thank you so much for the time you've given trying to help me with this, I truly appreciate it. x

Does Frederick sr have siblings? If so are any descendants of those siblings dna matches to you and/or the descendants of the later children?

My focus would be looking for those matches, adding them to my tree and linking them from the match list. Based on the relationship to them given in tree view I'd then be checking to see if the shared DNA is within the range for that relationship. If there are no matches then there  are a few possible reasons, from a lack of testers to mistakes in trees resulting in the wrong ancestor being added. 

I have too many cousins who simply don't use their DNA results and listen to Uncle Tom & copy (wrong), trees, they look the other way at the half dozen unknown matches at 150-200cM we all share, the matches that prove the birth cert for our ancestor is just a work of fiction. I genuinely don't know why they took a test, if they don't use the information from it then it was pointless doing it.

Frederick Sr had eight siblings. The DNA matches I have are from descendants of four of them (as detailed in my reply to Biggles50 yesterday).  I have no matches from the two later children of Frederick Sr and Harriett.

So far, I have no matches with Frederick Sr b. 1843, or Frederick Jr b. 1868 apart from my 1st cousin (who is a 380cm match). Our grandfather was Sidney Hales , son of Frederick Jr.

(I was urged to take a DNA test by another cousin, I hadn't been too bothered about doing so before.  I never realised how complicated it was, otherwise I probably wouldn't have bothered, although it has been interesting regarding ethnicity and making contact with others. I obviously don't have a mathematical or scientific brain,  some of it is like trying to understand Chinese....I need a 'DNA for Dummies' guide   

Building deep and wide trees long with good grouping will go a long way to proving if Frederick b1843 is genuinely an ancestor. Just because something is written on a birth cert doesn't make it true, on the face of it I have a link to a Navenby family, the mother was pregnant when she married but the hubby isn't the father, the dna contradicts the paperwork (the father is the brother of my pedigree ancestor).

Thanks for your help.  My tree is 'deep and wide' so far.

If you share DNA with them you are related.

Just how closely is very much dependant upon how much DNA is shared, not just with you but between each of them.

The lower the shared DNA the more distant it is until you find the MRCA to each of them.

Often one has a DNA Match but there is no “paperwork” to back it up, but DNA above 20cM can be regarded as reliable, then the reliability goes down until 10cM and below when it becomes questionable and a documented trail is really needed to support the link.

DNA also can show a match but if the person was the subject of an undocumented Adoption then that can cloud the matter.

In your case it would help us if you could list the cM shared with each of the four.

Thank you - I know it sounds like such a ridiculous question, but I've been going round in circles with all of this and I just wanted confirmation that Frederick Sr must have been his biological father.

Petros has found the birth reg for Frederick Jr (fanfare of trumpets), the DOB matches, and the mother is Harriett Hudson, no father named, but it must have been Frederick Sr if I have those DNA matches.  Here are the cM's....

His sister No. 1:  22cM/2seg
Sister No. 2:       9cM/1seg
Brother No.1:      9cM/1seg
Brother No. 2:     17cM/1seg

In addition, I have a 360cM match with my first cousin.

And I know I need to research this DNA thing properly, so apologies.

EDITED:  As I mentioned in my first post, Frederick Sr and Harriett Hudson had two children who were born in Wandsworth, but long after Frederick Jr's birth in 1868 to Harriett. Arthur was born in 1878 and Ada in 1888, so there's ten years between the siblings. Is it possible that Frederick Sr wasn't the biological father, that he met Harriett sometime after, and they had Arthur and Ada together, thereby making them Frederick Jr's half-siblings.... and is it possible that the DNA matches I have from Frederick Sr's siblings are linked to the half-siblings of Frederick Jr? The only DNA match I have with Frederick Sr is with my first cousin.  The only thing making me think Frederick Sr was the father (unnamed on the birth cert) is that Harriett registered him as FREDERICK Hudson,