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Thanks for your prompt reply, I knew I could rely on you. Isn't it awful when you can't be sure, but still can't stop searching?

What do you mean by "Ancestry thinks so too"?

I haven't been able to find death record for Thomas Hillier, dob 30 July 1896 or 1897.

Does your friend know his father's birth and death dates?

Rose

Without the marriage cert to check father's name, yes, I think its a reasonable assumption.

Ancestry thinks so too (not that that's necessarily worth much), and from the birth record it suggests these records:

Alfred William Hillier
in the UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current
Name: Alfred William Hillier
Birth Date: 1927
Death Date: 1997
Cemetery: St Leonard Churchyard
Burial or Cremation Place: Hollington, Hastings Borough, East Sussex, England
Has Bio?: N

Unfortunately his gravestone doesn't give any info re relatives.

Hello, its me again (sorry). I'm not asking for any research (please don't waste your valuable time on this), but your opinion on the following would be very much appreciated:

I'm trying to help another friend, and have hit a very early brickwall. I have told him he ought to send for his parents' marriage certificate for be sure of his paternal grandfather's name, but so far I haven't been able to persuade him to do so, but I can't stop trying to find answers anyway.

His parents were (according to him) Alfred William Hillier and Violet F Burgess (born 1933), who married in Hastings in January quarter 1954. Violet has been easy to trace back, but not so AWF. All my friend remembers is that his paternal grandparents lived in Hastings Old Town.

A search for AWF birth produced several hits, but none in Hastings. I followed up on the others, but none of them had any connection to Hastings.

He then mentioned an aunt, Nel Peterson. I found a marriage between Florence Ellen Hillier and Arthur Peterson in Hastings 1944, her mmn Kent. Florence May Kent married Thomas Hillier in Hastings, January quarter of 1918. They had 6 children that I have been able to trace, no Alfred William but a William A, born 1927. Florence Ellen was born 1924.

Knowing how first names were switched for some reason, would you think it safe to accept the William A for the Alfred William I am looking for? The Thomas Hillier who married Florence May Kent is fascinating - English parents who went to Canada from Devon in the 1880s, Thomas joined the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force, then he and his parents moved to USA and in 1919 took up American citizenship. On his naturalization papers he names his wife as Florence, born and living in Hastings, England. He returned to England later in 1919, and their first child was born in 1920. I have discovered that the Canadian OEF was based in Hastings during WW1.

I am not asking for any research into any of these names, just your opinion as to whether I'm safe in assuming that William A is the Alfred William I'm looking for.