LIES, COINCIDENCES AND A TANGLED WEB

Help please. I am an experienced researcher but through someone who believed he was a DNA match to my husband (since disproved) I have found a challenge that's got me beat! (I'd still like to help him though).
S's grandmother M claims that she was born on 26 Dec 1945 in Reading - no birth reg or baptism found in any of the several names she has used in Reading or elsewhere in England & Wales. S says she has a Welsh accent.
She has been married twice, both in Scotland, but the 2nd probably bigamously, + another relationship that produced a child.
The 1st marriage was 1964 in Thurso to James HIDES (I have the cert) - she recorded her parents as Cliff ROWLES, a scientist, and Doreen ROWLES nee BENNETT.

FACT: Doreen BENNETT is my husband's birth mother, gave him up for adoption, and later married Clifford H. ROWLES in 1954 in Pontypool, Mon (they were both local to that area). They had no children. Clifford was previously married to (May) Florence HAILS - they had no known children.

M had 3 sons with James HIDES in 1964, 1965 and 1967 in Sheffield. My contact S is the son of the youngest son.
In 1972 M. had an illegitimate son C by Edward Frederick BUSH in Stepney, London when she recorded her maiden name as ROSEN and place of birth as Reading. (I have C's b. cert.)

In 1985 she eloped to Luxembourg with a solicitor Michael Thomas McSHERRY and married him in Dec. 1985 in Glasgow. This time she recorded that the given name she used was a variation of a previous similar name, her father again as Cliff ROWLES, a professor of chemistry, but her mother as Florence HALEN.

S and his father became estranged from M after her marriage to McSHERRY.

In searching for M's birth record to find out who her parents really were I have searched freebmd, ancestry and the GRO on known surnames; fishing trips on both known given names only + every combination of both; looked at electoral rolls of supposed parents; googled all names + parents, and am now stumped!

If M isn't the child of Doreen and Cliff (she's certainly NOT Doreen's daughter as DNA shows) how did she get these details? She named both of Cliff's wives but got them in the wrong order and mis spelled Florence's surname. I can find no trace of her in Wales despite the alleged accent.

The only 'near thing' I've found is an illegitimate b. reg. in Sep. 1936 in Croydon (2a 905) in the name of Margaret HAILS. Although much earlier than expected (did M lie yet again?), could this be Florence's child b. immediately before her marriage to Clifford reg. Jun. 1936, but reg in the following qtr? Is it worth getting this cert?

S's residence is in England but mostly works overseas and I am in Australia, so reliant on online resources.

Any suggestions please?

 

No, no DNA match. Checked manually through ancestry and then did a 1 to 1 comparison on FTDNA, so we know that M isn’t my husband’s half sister. Although not my problem, I’d like To help S so the challenge now is to try to find out who M really is and cut through all the lies. Where the hell did she get these supposed parents names? It can’t be just coincidence. I’ve asked S to get a cheap pdf copy of the 1936 b. cert. to see if this sheds any light. Maybe M is Florence’s illegitimate child reared by someone else which would account for the Welsh accent and knowing the names. I’m sure Cliff would have loved being elevated to a prof. of chemistry!

 

Thanks for that. I was hoping I might have been onto something but its not to be . . .