Road block... now what?

Road block. The evil "r" word of genealogy. We all hit one and many of us are able to break through them.

This one I am not sure of.

I have very limited information on my dad's bio father. I have a name from a marriage certificate and the name J. R. Rice listed as a witness, from what I have been told is his father- my great grandfather. I am on the search for Thomas Richard Rice. He and my grandmother married when they were young. Like 16 young. I was told he is from the Chicago area, however the marriage certificate states King County, Washington. I have not been able to verify his existence in the 1940 census, mainly because I am going off an assumed name for his father and have not been able to find anyone that would give me a straight answer.

My family has been pretty stand- offish about him - even going so far as to say he died at the age of 26 yet no records can verify this. What is even more strange is that as this is coming out I am seeing these changes show up on a family tree that my aunt has been "working on".

So, where do you turn when your family doesn't want you to find someone? I have some leads for even more distant family members that have also been working with that side of the family tree. But I am worried I will get the run- around as well.

As anyone who has worked on family trees for any period of time knows, when researching, you often find the skeletons that others had hoped were buried forever. I have a feeling this is one of them. I can only guess by the strange behavior that has been exhibited by family m,embers that he must have done something horrible. It doesn't matter to me at this point.

My dad never knew who his bio-father was and that is no way for a person to grow up. I really want to find some info- even a bit. I think he is still alive and remarried and living in Washington. I have found several records to suggest this but nothing concrete.

So, to my much more experienced researchers: what would you do? What methods do you utilize to break down these road blocks? My go- to methods are not usable at this time as family will not cooperate.

I know he is out there somewhere, I just have to find him!