I'm working on a puzzle which has me stumped. To be VERY brief, I cannot find a death for a wife, yet I find two subsequent marriages of someone of the same name, same place, right time frame. As to the details - where I cannot be quite so brief, I fear: 1 Frederic Thomas ELLERTON married Sarah ACEY in the first quarter of 1867 in Sculcoates Register Office - per Yorkshire BMD. 2 They had two children, born in 1867 and 1869. 3 On the 1871 census, Frederic is listed as a "widower." 4 He remarried in the third quarter of 1872, possibly somewhat hastily. 5 I have looked at the GRO indexes - and also on the FreeBMD and Yorkshire BMD web sites, which I realise are not complete yet - and can find no death for Sarah ELLERTON. The name seems not terribly common, as so far on the two aforementioned web sites, I can find no reference to her birth (although admittedly, I have no date for it). 6 Yet in 1870 and 1874, there are marriages of a "Sarah ACEY", again in the Sculcoates Register Office. 7 Was Frederic really a widower in 1871, or did his wife leave him? Could he have told the census enumerator he was a widower to avoid having to explain the scandal of a wife who left him? 8 Order the certificates, I can hear you saying. . .but my purse is saying "ouch"! as my husband complains about what an expensive hobby this is getting to be. I would need to order one certificate for each of Sarah's 3 marriages, plus Frederic's hasty marriage and the hasty child, to clear up matters, and I have already spent a small fortune on certificates concerning this huge family. Any suggestions or solutions?? Diane