Tony Rolfe wrote: > I recently ran a potential problems report and found the following > situation: > > A woman had married and had children. > > The 1871 census shows her as a widow with several children, including a > 3-month-old daughter. Her husband had died in 1868. > > The 1881 census shows her being remarried with two more children born > after 1871 but before her new marriage and with her previous married > surname. > > So, these may have been adopted, they may be fathered by her new husband > before the marriage, or she may have had another, as yet undocumented, > relationship (or two). > > The three children born between the death of husband 1 and the marriage > to husband 2 were linked to husband 1 and showed up as potential > problems. I've unlinked the three children from their parents and > linked them to the mother, but now they each have an unknown father. > This poor woman shows up as having 5 husbands, three unknowns and two > with names. Is there any way to consolidate the 3 unknown spouses into > one, without actually creating someone called "Unknown"?
It may be there was only one other man involved rather than three but I would keep them all separate until you know for sure. The baptismal register may have the "alleged father" named. Aternatively the poor law account books may have reference to the "alleged father" being pursued for maintenance. IME, this only happened where the mother was likely to be a charge on the parish (maintenance was only paid for the child though, not the mother). If she was able to support herself or her family were willing and able to do so (which seems to have happened much of the time), there won't be anything. One of my 2x great grandmothers never married but had 5 children. From the spacing, it seems there may have been up to three different men involved. She's shown with three unknown "husbands". I've never been able to find anything at all about who fathered her children. This is again where I would like to see an alternative to "Male" and "Husband". -- Charani (UK) OPC for Walton, Ashcott, Shapwick, Greinton and Clutton, SOM http://wsom-opc.org.uk Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
