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Genealogy Dilemna: Sorting Out Multiple Marriages

June 29, 2009 by Terrie Lynn Bittner
Filed under: Genealogy, Family History & Temple Work, Intermediate Family History 

The past week I worked to sort out the life of a man who was associated with four women. Because these relationships resulted in children, I wanted to be certain I had the proper children assigned to the correct parents. Internet searches complicated the matters, since different researchers gave the children to different parents, and some of the women had other spouses over time, and children from those relationships as well. If you’re facing a similar problem, there are a number of steps you can take to organize the families correctly.

Begin by listing all the spouses for each person you can find. You need the spouses who are not your direct line as well.George Holman tombstone You also need the spouses of the non-direct spouses. For instance: Man A had children with Woman B, Woman C, and Woman D. You’re not sure yet which ones he might have actually married. Woman C is your direct ancestor. However, Woman C had an additional husband, and Woman D had two additional husbands. You need all the husbands and wives involved in this story and all the children resulting from each relationship, even though technically, many of them are not related to you in any way. Otherwise you run the risk of missing a child or assigning him to the wrong parent. Read more

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