My aunt Wilhelmina (Trautvetter) Kraft died in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, in the latter part of the 19th century. She died without enough of an estate to warrant a probate, had no obituary, and did not leave any other record in the area where she died suggesting that she had children. The name of her Kraft husband was known and it was assumed that they had been married at least twenty years when she died. I knew she was my aunt because she was listed as a sister when her bachelor brother died a few years before she did. For many years I only knew details of the last twenty or so years of her life. It was as if she just appeared out of thin air as my uncle’s sister.
She did not appear out of nowhere. When I finally located her brother’s place of birth and was able to obtain German records on the family I discovered why I had difficulty finding her.
She had a husband before she emigrated from Germany to the United States. They were married at least twelve years and had five children who survived to adulthood. She immigrated as a widow with her brothers and they spent a few years in Kentucky where she married Mr. Kraft. Her children were grown before she moved to Illinois. She is not listed with any of them in any census record.
Until I found the first husband all those children were hiding under his name. Don’t assume that the long-term spouse someone has at death is the only spouse they had.
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