getting the right crick
 

I have researched my family name Crick back to the mid 1700s but I am not sure how to validate the latest name.
I have a William Crick born 1778 in Cockfield Suffolk who is confirmed. His father is William Crick and mother Martha.
HOwever I cannot find William, the father, in Cockfield. I have even been there this weekend grave hunting as I have a william who died in Cockfield in 1826, which is not his son as he died in Haverhill!!
I have a number of the parish registers on disc as they are not on line it seems. Bury st Edmonds being the record office for the area have said it is just not happening.
I have been through all of them and listed each Crick family and their children. I have deduced that as he married in 1775 and the death record says he was 84 at his death (if it is the same one of course) that his birth would be somewhere around 1740-1755 and amongst all the families I have only one william born in 1754 in Lavenham. This is about 4 miles from Cockfield.
I have checked to see if the other children of that family stayed in lavenham and it doesn't look like they did. The father of this william is William!!!
I am therefore thinking that as he married Martha in Clare which is also very nearby, he married Martha, moved to Cockfield and had is family and died there?
His father is William, he is William and he called his son William, who also had a son, William!
Those are the only things I can think of to do this sort of detective work on it as there is no William born in Cockfield around the time I need.
I have marked out the map and most of the villages are covered.
I did locate a William born in 1752 in Sudbury, which is 11 miles from Cockfield to a Philip and Susan Crick.
Any thoughts much appreciated.

You have my sympathies!
Once you are back before 1837, it is worth looking at any records you can find: wills, manorial, deeds, poor law material and any catalogues and card indexes the record office may hold.
I don't know where Cockfield is in Suffolk, but Haverhill is near the border with Essex and Cambridge, so it's worth considering those counties too for stray references.

Have a look on here, I've found it very useful in the past. The originator Ray Long passed away some time ago but some of his research has been archived.

https://historyofsuffolk.co.uk/cosford/

Its so hard to know if you have the right one. THere are no markers, like names of parents etc