I'm still coming up empty on looking for you - I know, you warned me <vbg>, but still... My great-great-grandfather seems to have lived his entire life within 10-20 mile radius (as far as I know - I've yet to find HIS parents, so I'm guessing he was born, grew up and died in the same place. His first wife was a Mary (my ancestress), unfortunately I can't find a marriage for them, nor can I find her last name or place/date of death. In 1860 he remarried...to Mary Alexander. After John died, Mary remarried, to a Russell Armstrong. At about this same time, her step-daughter from her first marriage, Nancy, married a Russell Armstrong - same county. The two men have just a few years separating them in age. And yes, both women went on to have children with these men (which wreaked quite a bit of havoc with me and Family Tree Maker because at first I didn't realize I was looking at two separate marriages. AND both men were widowers with children at the time of their marriages to Mary and Nancy Hopkins). One of Mary Alexander's brothers was named Henry (one of three in the county at the same time), and he married Sarah Davis, who had had at least one child out of wedlock - Mary Davis. Mary Davis married John W. Hopkins, who was the son of the above mentioned John Hopkins and his first wife Mary. So, based on my experience, what you're describing sounds pretty darn normal! Cathy singhals wrote: > > 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? > > Thanks. > > Cheryl