Hello all,
My wife's brother-in-Law dropped in today and kindly agreed to spend some time updating my wife's Family Tree. I was, however, not expecting what he had to tell and I am now at a loss as to how to record the data and how to adjust diagrams (if at all).
He revealed that his Grandfather was known to have married more than once, even though his previous wives had not been divorced and were still living. It seems that the Bigamous relationship(s) were widely known but most turned a blind eye.
My problem is that I don't know how to record this matter correctly. Due to the fact that Divorce records are not readily available I have often left a marriage without closure, even when I know there has been a second (the first spouse may have died but I had not reached the point of confirming the fact).
In the case of a KNOWN Bigamous marriage, how should I record the situation of the first - 'Separated' ? Is there an accepted Genealogical way of recorded this situation ? Can anyone help ???
Bilko
ID:3790
* Entry of a Bigamous Marriage (or two)
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ChrisBowyer
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- Joined: 25 Jan 2006 15:10
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Entry of a Bigamous Marriage (or two)
I think the answer in these situations is simply to record the facts as you know them (as I may have said before once or twice, there are no rules, only conventions, do whatever suits what you're trying to achieve).
If you know of 3 marriages, record three marriages. If you know of any divorces, record them too. If not, 'Separated' seems a reasonable assumption for the earlier ones. I'd certainly record the fact that a marriage is bigamous as a note on the second and subsequent marriage events though.
But I wouldn't worry too much about marriage status. It's really a legacy from the LDS, and since it's a single value per partnership, can't really reflect changes through time. If you know of a formal separation you could of course add a custom event for it.
It may be worth chcking for marriage registrations though. We have a few examples of people recorded as husband and wife where we know one of them is still married to someone else. In a couple of cases, they actually married much later after the original spouse had died.
If you know of 3 marriages, record three marriages. If you know of any divorces, record them too. If not, 'Separated' seems a reasonable assumption for the earlier ones. I'd certainly record the fact that a marriage is bigamous as a note on the second and subsequent marriage events though.
But I wouldn't worry too much about marriage status. It's really a legacy from the LDS, and since it's a single value per partnership, can't really reflect changes through time. If you know of a formal separation you could of course add a custom event for it.
It may be worth chcking for marriage registrations though. We have a few examples of people recorded as husband and wife where we know one of them is still married to someone else. In a couple of cases, they actually married much later after the original spouse had died.