Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have a difficult time keeping things straight when I come across an ancestor who married a former in-law.
For example, I have a 3rd great-grandmother who married a man, was widowed, then ten years later married his twin brother.
It took me forever to figure this situation out, as it was the first one I encountered. Now I have found a few more, but my brain has a hard time sorting it out!
To top it off, this whole branch of the tree has very common first names and surnames, of the William Johnson variety of commonness.
I know what you are talking about. It was not too unusual in the "old days" because when someone became a widow or widower they needed someone to help raise that house full of kids and it was easier to marry someone you already knew. I have the same thing in my tree.
I have a difficult time keeping things straight when I come across an ancestor who married a former in-law.
For example, I have a 3rd great-grandmother who married a man, was widowed, then ten years later married his twin brother.
It took me forever to figure this situation out, as it was the first one I encountered. Now I have found a few more, but my brain has a hard time sorting it out!
To top it off, this whole branch of the tree has very common first names and surnames, of the William Johnson variety of commonness.
Anyone else find this?
Mine's even better.
My maternal grandfather's father first married Agness. She was the youngest of the family. He either worked for them or 'boarded' but since it was a farm I'm thinking worked. There were a bunch of daughters.
Her oldest sister married, and had a daughter. That daughter married and had a daughter. The difference in age between this daughter and her great aunt was about ten years. So we have a whole generations skipped, more or less. Agness dies with two children. He moved in with her neice's family with his children. The oldest of her daughters is fourteen. They show on the Iowa state cencus with him, his kids, the neice and husband and kids and husband's parents living on a different farm together in Iowa. Following year, he is married to the now fifteen year old daughter who is my great grandmother. She had six or seven kids, one of whom is my grandfather. I don't even want to try to figure out what all the relation between them and their half-sibilings is.
First wife died in her late twenties, second around 55. Albert lived to 91 and was living with his son, from his first marriage when he died. Half the family lived in Iowa. The rest had gone to Los Angeles.
My mom said he married his first wife's *sister* whe she died young leaving him with two young children. I think 'sister' became the word since it was sooooo much simpler to explain.
I don't even want to try to figure out what all the relation between them and their half-sibilings is.
Your software program probably has a "relationship calculator". Pop in two names, and it does it for you.
I recently found a family where three sisters married three brothers. I had had two sisters marrying two brothers before, but this was the first time for three.
My mom said he married his first wife's *sister* whe she died young leaving him with two young children. I think 'sister' became the word since it was sooooo much simpler to explain.
WOW that is a good one.
I love the euphemisms for complicated family relations.
I guess my most interesting situation came up with my own grandfather. He had one child with his first wife. They divorced. Then he had two children with wife #2. They divorced. Their best friends, a married couple, had gotten divorced 6 months earlier. Granddad and wife #2 basically swapped with their friends and married the others' spouse.
Wife #2 has another child with her new husband, but my grandfather never had more. My husband needed a diagram before family reunions.
consider this, in early generations people oftem married those who were in close proximity. There was little time or abililty to travel to distant areas to meet new people and most married those who loved or worked close by. My grandmothers family has many brothers and sisters who married brothers and sisters. My grandmother once told me that her father would only allow her youngest sister to go to dances with her older sister and her fellow. Thus the younger sister wound up marrying the younger brother and the older sister married the older brother.
My g-g-uncle (by marriage) married his sister-in-law (my g-g-aunt) a few years after his wife (my other g-g-aunt) died. They were really close in age, and actually looked quite similar.
I know what you are talking about. It was not too unusual in the "old days" because when someone became a widow or widower they needed someone to help raise that house full of kids and it was easier to marry someone you already knew. I have the same thing in my tree.
Yes. On my husbands side of the family, and not so long ago!
His mother's older sister married a man. They had two boys together. When she became ill, (illness unclear - have heard pneumonia), her sister came by each day to nurse her and care for the little boys.
She died within the year and married her former brother in-law. The boys were 4 and 2 at the time.
They had three more children. Two boys and a girl.
One would think that an aunt would make a good stepmother, but from what I have deduced, that was not the case.
The couple went on to build a three bedroom house. A strange choice for a family with four, going on five children.
When the eldest two were ten and eight they were shipped off to a military academy. They never really lived home after that, and when they did they slept in the finished basement. Their bedroom was given to the younger two brothers.
One of the half brother-half cousin named his first child, a daughter, after is real mother. A very old fashioned name, Dorothy; especially for the late 1980s.
It happened all the time. Especially on the farm ... like someone said, people were few and far between. They'd already "tested" the family, and had a decent result. So why not take on another from the same family.
But seriously, it often occurred simply because someone had to go to help out with the children of the widower. A sister was a good solution. But, it wasn't seemly for them to live alone together, so they got married. Marriage wasn't necessarily the starry-eyed "falling in love" thing back then like it is today. It was a practical arrangement.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
