"singhals" <singhals@erols.com> wrote in message news:Y-KdnYWEQP5XQjTanZ2dnUVZ_u-unZ2d@rcn.net... > > I've stared at this until I've driven myself into a depression. So then I > dragged some good friends into it, and they've gone cross-eyed. > > Now I'm inviting comments from the world-at-large. (g) > > What are the odds of a man b 1833 who, except for his CW service, NEVER > lived more than 27 miles from his birthplace in VA, having married 3 > separate women with the same given names, only the middle of whom left a > death record, and only the first and 2nd left a marriage record? > > There are numerous other details, but that's the broad picture, and what > I'm after here is -- is this a common-as-dirt scenario, or it is a > one-of-a-kind, or is it neither rare nor frequent? In communities where everyone was called for a family member, and some forenames were very common (I'd love a pound for every Isabella or James in my databases) it's likely. You have, of course, one of the laws of genealogy which requires that if a situation can be obscured or made complicated, somebody in a given family tree will have done it. I've got a chap who was born in England, moved to the jute mills in Scotland as a teenager and stayed there, except that he went back to his birthplace to find each of his 3 wives, 2 of whom were cousins and 2 of whom (1 cousin and the other one) had the same forename.... Took me ages to sort that one. At one point I thought he had 4 wives since the cousin with the different forename was variously known as Isabel and Isabella, but unless he was a bigamist, they must be the same woman. If it was easy, it wouldn't be fun! Lesley Robertson

Johnny Carson had several wives and they were all named forms of Johanna, Joanne etc. Judy Lesley Robertson wrote: > "singhals" <singhals@erols.com> wrote in message > news:Y-KdnYWEQP5XQjTanZ2dnUVZ_u-unZ2d@rcn.net... > >> I've stared at this until I've driven myself into a depression. So then I >> dragged some good friends into it, and they've gone cross-eyed. >> >> Now I'm inviting comments from the world-at-large. (g) >> >> What are the odds of a man b 1833 who, except for his CW service, NEVER >> lived more than 27 miles from his birthplace in VA, having married 3 >> separate women with the same given names, only the middle of whom left a >> death record, and only the first and 2nd left a marriage record? >> >> There are numerous other details, but that's the broad picture, and what >> I'm after here is -- is this a common-as-dirt scenario, or it is a >> one-of-a-kind, or is it neither rare nor frequent? >> > > In communities where everyone was called for a family member, and some > forenames were very common (I'd love a pound for every Isabella or James in > my databases) it's likely. You have, of course, one of the laws of genealogy > which requires that if a situation can be obscured or made complicated, > somebody in a given family tree will have done it. > I've got a chap who was born in England, moved to the jute mills in Scotland > as a teenager and stayed there, except that he went back to his birthplace > to find each of his 3 wives, 2 of whom were cousins and 2 of whom (1 cousin > and the other one) had the same forename.... Took me ages to sort that one. > At one point I thought he had 4 wives since the cousin with the different > forename was variously known as Isabel and Isabella, but unless he was a > bigamist, they must be the same woman. > If it was easy, it wouldn't be fun! > Lesley Robertson > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ALT-GENEALOGY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > >