Have I finally had a breakthrough?

[niknaknix]

Hello, I’m trying not to get excited here but I’m hoping I’ve finally had a breakthrough, but my complete newbie status won’t let me get to emotionally attached just yet!

I previously posted a year or so ago about searching for my grandfather William Stanley Lloyd, who we had been told served in the Canadian Navy. For years I’ve been searching Canadian records as best I could access (again probably not that great as I am a true novice!) without success.

I previously did 23andMe with no leads and recently did an Ancestry DNA and got the result this week.

I’ve matched with someone, who had a grandmother with the surname Lloyd. I’ve so far had no luck with the name and when I opened her tree she had a brother William Stanley Lloyd and there is a photo of him in Naval attire 🤞🏼

Anyway I’ve messaged a few people connected to the tree but have yet to hear back and have kept things quite general as at this stage the birth of my mother may well be a skeleton in the closet so I’m mindful of this.

Anyway what else can I do to truly find out if this is finally him? I’m completely thrown by the fact this gentleman was in the UK but knowing my grandmother now believe Canada may have been a decoy for a relationship that was out of wedlock back in the 1940’s.  He was born in Hull 1918 and died in Loughborough 1993

I have managed to order his death certificate. I know from the letters we had that in 1946 he was on HMS Creole in Portsmouth and that he was a PO HSD (I think the HSD is something thing to do with submarines?

My mum was born in 1947. According to ancestry he was living in Weymouth in 1941 which I’m assuming was a navy posting at that time.

If anyone has any ideas, tips or advice I’d be gladly open to it and really hoping the mystery of my grandfather might be finally solved! He was know more informally as Stan on his letters and and I found and obituary for his father which refers to his son named Stanley.

I’ve ordered his death cert so I can hopefully access his records.

I share 2% dna with the living match on Ancestry and if its my grandfather he would be my matches Great Uncle.

If you’ve read this far thank you 🙏

[Cas (stallc)]

Congrats on your breakthrough, how exciting, and a pic of him to boot!  You must be over the moon...

https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4

Not sure if you have tried the above link..it gives relationship probabilities for any other matches you may have or want to check

DNA cannot lie, it has changed the course of family history

Added - most of my matches in that range is 1 half 2nd cousin, then a few 2nd cousin 1 removed.

Cas

[scotmum]

There is a small entry under the Family Announcements section of the Leicester Mercury of 22/12/1993, saying he passed away on November 13th after a short illness. There are then three forenames listed, but no surnames of the three, nor indication of relationship (if any, it may have been friends), to William or each other.

[niknaknix]

Wow thank you Cas and Scotmum! You guys are amazing! I’ll definitely check the info out you have given me!

Scotmum do you have a link of where to pull up historical postings for that paper?

Thank you so much 🙏

[scotmum]

Via subscription or credits at Find My Past and/or British Newspaper Archives.

There was also a short article in the Leicester Mercury in 1987, which may have been him (age not matching, but that is sometimes the case in newspapers).

It concerned a William Stanley Lloyd age 66. The chap was apparently missing from home at East Avenue and concern was growing for his safety. It went on to say he had only a few friends in the Leicester area, but had contacted neither these nor his wife since leaving home.

[Cas (stallc)]

There is also this one, unless the same one as scotsmum posted. Name is swapped?

Name   William Lloyd Stanley
Gender   Male
Residence Place   Newington Street
Death Date   Abt 1993
Burial Date   25 Nov
Obituary Date   20 Nov 1993
Obituary Place   Leicester, Leicestershire, England
Newspaper Title   Leicester Mercury

Added - No access to newspapers. I normally ask some kind soul for a look up on the relevant area board.

Cas

[scotmum]

Just came back to post that one too. It is under Lloyd surname in original newspaper, then forenames William Stanley, but only returned the result on FindMyPast when I searched "Lloyd William Stanley".

Your source has indexed the names wrongly, I suspect.

Certainly seems to have been the same chap of the other Family Announcement. Funeral service and cremation at Gilroes Crematorium.

[scotmum]

Niknaknix, if you report your post to a moderator, you can ask them to move it to the DNA board, where you should hopefully get more help and suggestions to your main questions of how to use DNA and the match finds to their best.

Here is your old Armed Forces board post for reference too:

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=884774.msg7578070#msg7578070

[niknaknix]

Wow you guys are beyond helpful!! Thank you so much!

I’ve spent around 20 years fumbling along as a novice trying to find info on him so you can imagine why I’m a bit excited by this 🤣🤣