A relative immigrated to the US in the 1860s while married to her first husband. She’s named in her father’s will in the US (he immigrated as well) and was buried in Nebraska under the last name of that husband. She seemed to disappear sometime after the 1870 census only to reappear in the 1890s when she died in Nebraska.
She really didn’t disappear at all. She was married for about ten years from 1870 (after the census) through at least the 1880 census. The relative and her second husband apparently separated as there’s no mention of him in a family history written several years later and she appears in the funeral records of her local church without a married last name at all–only a reference to her maiden name.
If that female relative has gone poof for a time is it possible that there was a marriage that ended that no one talked about? This relative apparently had no children with this second husband and it’s much easier to let these people evaporate when they do not reproduce with the relative in question.
Check out our Tip of the Day books.
No responses yet