Mary Puffer, widow of Ephraim Puffer is referred to as Mary Puffer many times in the estate record of her husband from the 1700s. However there is one signed document where she is referred to as the widow and signed as Mary Brown.
Subsequent marriages of the widow can be indirectly mentioned in an estate file. Make certain to look through all the documents–even the boring ones.
3 Responses
A cool find and excellent heads-up for researchers!
Our local abstract office was discarding drawers and drawers of old abstracts. Our “genie” group was able to salvage them. What a treasure! Info is endless.
That is exactly how I discovered my great-grandmother remarried not once, but TWICE, following the death of my great-grandfather. She had essentially disappeared but through probate records I discovered the marriages and then (finally) determined when she died.