Both Frederick Gaston Layzell (1901-1956) and Percy Layzell (1906-1972) were born out of wedlock which in those days was socially unacceptable. In the case of Frederick, his mother was only 17 which is probably why she was unable to (or probably not allowed to) keep the baby. In the case of Percy she did keep the baby. Frederick was brought up by the Pamenter family in Bishop's Stortford but I have no idea whether this was a formal adoption or whether the Pamenter family was already known to the Layzells. Frederick's birth was kept secret and members of the Layzell family were sworn to secrecy. In the 1911 Census his relationship to the head of the family, Herbert Pamenter, was entered as adopted but that was crossed out and boarder was substituted.

Needless to say that the father's name(s) are not shown in the birth certificates but because of Frederick's second name, Gaston, it seemed likely that Frederick's father was Frederick William Gaston who in the 1901 Census was aged 18 and living in Church Street about a mile from Neville Road where the Layzells were living. I couldn't find Frederick Gaston in the 1911 Census or in any later records.

However, what clinched the matter was that a grandson of Frederick William Gaston's sister, Hilda, had an Ancestry DNA test and was found to be related to a granddaughter of Percy Layzell! The conclusion was that Frederick William Gaston was the father in both cases.