Oz

[Nick]

My grandmother died in the 1918 flu epidemic, leaving my grandfather and 4 kids. He shacked up with some woman for years (she was called Aunty).

Now how the devil did we get here?

[Snoopy]

I have had trouble convincing "family" that Great Greandfather saw his running off to the US as a divorce.
Grt Grandmother's subsequent remarriage, when she claimed to be a widow, had several of the family searching for a "declaration of presumed death" in a court.
Again much disbelief when I explained that she had simply lied ~ until that is I showed them the marriage certificate that showed she had also knocked 11 years off her age and married a much younger man.
Some people simply cannot work out that what we would do these days did not apply in the 188os.

I've done a fair bit of researching the family history, and it's sometimes difficult to relate to the totally different attitude to things like marriage and bastardy etc. Going through the census data, I've got one ancestor who married for a second time (first one died) and second wife had a son although she was a spinster - ten years later the boy now has the fathers surname, no legal stuff required.
Also one ancestor loses 1 or 2 years at each census, so his wife does as well.

Another thing is how many people could not write - lots of "x"'s on marriage certs etc.

Very much the case ~ makes the research difficult sometimes. The bit I don't like is finding the deaths of so many young 'uns.

[tel]

And in the poor house.

[Snoopy]