Illiteracy back then is definitely a major issue when looking into a person's ancestry.As is the style of handwriting on documents. I'm trying to work out why I have longest shared autosomal blocks of DNA as follows - matches that have ancestors with these surnames. Goatley 19 cMs > Gatley 16cMs >Gatty 12 cMs (my surname) >Gattey 8cMs(var sp of Gatty)