There was a comment earlier about a man being married four times with a suggestion elsewhere that there may have been two men with the same name. Four wives was not totally unusual in those days. Health was not universally good and postpartum deaths were common and un-treatable. And of course the widower would have to marry quickly to have a housekeeper and to look after the existing children. In the outer isles it was the practice in some communities that, if the mother died, the father would marry her eldest eligible sister on the same days as the funeral. And vice versa if the husband died. We do have one case [would you believe?] which involved Alexander SHIRRAN who I have often mentioned before. Around 1810-1817 he had two daughters with one woman, ?Ann DUNCAN [1] - marriage & births not recorded. In 1820 he married Isabella ROSS [2] and they had one daughter - Ann - who was damaged in some way. I suspect it might have been a birth trauma. In 1835 he married Ann CADGER [3] and had two more daughters, plus Ann from the previous marriage. We think Ann CADGER died in April 1848 in ARI but can't prove it to be the same person. Later that same year he married Elspet CLARK [4] and had two more daughters plus, at last, a son. Perversely he called him George despite a sequence of Alexanders in the family! By this time the daughter Ann SHIRRAN was being looked after by the daughters of ?Ann DUNCAN who were married with families of their own. Ann SHIRRAN died at the age of 69 in 1889, well cared for by all her step-mothers and step-sisters and after a long life. So Alexander had three wives and a probable earlier one. Ray Hennessy www.whatsinaname.net

It is my view that ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Hennessy" <[email protected]> To: "Aberdeen List" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 10:26 PM Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] Fw: William Grant There was a comment earlier about a man being married four times with a suggestion elsewhere that there may have been two men with the same name. Four wives was not totally unusual in those days. Health was not universally good and postpartum deaths were common and un-treatable. And of course the widower would have to marry quickly to have a housekeeper and to look after the existing children. In the outer isles it was the practice in some communities that, if the mother died, the father would marry her eldest eligible sister on the same days as the funeral. And vice versa if the husband died. We do have one case [would you believe?] which involved Alexander SHIRRAN who I have often mentioned before. Around 1810-1817 he had two daughters with one woman, ?Ann DUNCAN [1] - marriage & births not recorded. In 1820 he married Isabella ROSS [2] and they had one daughter - Ann - who was damaged in some way. I suspect it might have been a birth trauma. In 1835 he married Ann CADGER [3] and had two more daughters, plus Ann from the previous marriage. We think Ann CADGER died in April 1848 in ARI but can't prove it to be the same person. Later that same year he married Elspet CLARK [4] and had two more daughters plus, at last, a son. Perversely he called him George despite a sequence of Alexanders in the family! By this time the daughter Ann SHIRRAN was being looked after by the daughters of ?Ann DUNCAN who were married with families of their own. Ann SHIRRAN died at the age of 69 in 1889, well cared for by all her step-mothers and step-sisters and after a long life. So Alexander had three wives and a probable earlier one. Ray Hennessy www.whatsinaname.net ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com

It is my view that when looking at a genealogy conundrum we must look at the facts as they stand and judge each case on its own merits. We should be prepared for anything and examine every aspect about it. We also need to take a step back in time if that's possible, look at each case individually because we might overlook a possibility no matter how many brick walls we may have toppled. As you say, a man can just as easily lose more than one wife to puerperal fever if he loses one at all; he will take another and she may be as much as 20 years his junior and have a name the same as his first or subsequent wives. By way of observation, I haven't found women in rural areas losing their life to puerperal fever as often as those women giving birth in densely populated areas. Leave it to nature and all is well perhaps. Where there is a gap of more than 2 years we may find there was another child which may not have survived. Ten years between a census and a child of the family could be found with an Uncle or Aunt, or even elsewhere with an occupation. Where we find a husband in census records with an occupation in a totally different direction than it was before, it is worth looking at the possibility we have found two men with the same name who each have wives named the same. Janet 23.33pm ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Hennessy" <[email protected]> To: "Aberdeen List" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 10:26 PM Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] Fw: William Grant There was a comment earlier about a man being married four times with a suggestion elsewhere that there may have been two men with the same name. Four wives was not totally unusual in those days. Health was not universally good and postpartum deaths were common and un-treatable. And of course the widower would have to marry quickly to have a housekeeper and to look after the existing children. In the outer isles it was the practice in some communities that, if the mother died, the father would marry her eldest eligible sister on the same days as the funeral. And vice versa if the husband died. We do have one case [would you believe?] which involved Alexander SHIRRAN who I have often mentioned before. Around 1810-1817 he had two daughters with one woman, ?Ann DUNCAN [1] - marriage & births not recorded. In 1820 he married Isabella ROSS [2] and they had one daughter - Ann - who was damaged in some way. I suspect it might have been a birth trauma. In 1835 he married Ann CADGER [3] and had two more daughters, plus Ann from the previous marriage. We think Ann CADGER died in April 1848 in ARI but can't prove it to be the same person. Later that same year he married Elspet CLARK [4] and had two more daughters plus, at last, a son. Perversely he called him George despite a sequence of Alexanders in the family! By this time the daughter Ann SHIRRAN was being looked after by the daughters of ?Ann DUNCAN who were married with families of their own. Ann SHIRRAN died at the age of 69 in 1889, well cared for by all her step-mothers and step-sisters and after a long life. So Alexander had three wives and a probable earlier one. Ray Hennessy www.whatsinaname.net ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com