Hi Liz, Our grandparents and great grandparents were not as lilly white as they wanted us to believe. I have one who married three times all the while the other husbands were still alive. Trouble with John and Alice though they had three children in Aussie on those certs. John put his birth place as Ireland on one, Scotland on another and England on the last one and put marriage was in Victoria When the other children were born here in NZ it was before 1881 so there is less info. The children obviously did not know John and Alice were not married until 20 years after the eldest child's birth. For years we were looking for a marriage in Victoria. It was not until the New Zealand Soc. Of Genealogists produced the NZ marriage CD that we discovered the marriage. 20 years later. It is always interesting reading other genealogists problems. In some cases makes your own look a smaller problem. Still always worth putting the problems on the list there is always someone out there reading it and can come up with a suggestion. The old story two heads are better than one. One day you will find the answers. I hope you do. Regards Sue Hello Sue, Your posting initially caught my eye because it was so similar to the story of my 2x great grandmother. Eliza Boardman was b. 1841 in Liverpool and had my great grandmother, Margaret in 1862. The father on the birth certificate shows as Patrick Healey. I found a marriage certificate in 1863 for them so it was actually over a year later after the birth of Margaret that her parents married. I assumed that it was a religious issue as Eliza was CofE and I would strongly imagine that Patrick was Catholic. Anyway, they had another child, John Henry in 1871 and a third, Frederick William in 1873. Curiously, I never see Patrick on any census returns living with the family. Eliza is always shown with her children living with her parents. On the birth certificates of the children, Patrick's occupation is shown as baker. In 1879, Margaret marries and her marriage certificate states that her father Patrick is deceased and that he was a ship's cook. She leaves England a couple of years later with her husband and settles in America. The 1881 census finds Eliza again living with her 2 boys in her parents' home. It shows her as married, but no Patrick in sight. In 1889, Eliza's parents both die and she then leaves England for Australia. On the passage ticket, it shows a William Samuel Burgess, Eliza and her sons, John Henry and Frederick William - all with the last name Burgess. Now all their lives, the boys had the surname Healey, but now that they're traveling to Australia, suddenly their name is Burgess. Nine years later (1898) Eliza and William married privately at a chapel. Eliza put down that she was widowed in 1896. All this while, she and her sons were living with the name Burgess. Only by accident did their descendants find out their name was actually Healey. Evidently Eliza must have found out that her husband, Patrick died back in England and then she married Burgess. And back in 1879, when my great grandmother married, she put that her father was deceased, but I believe she was told that by her mother and that he was really alive until about 1896 when Eliza stated she became widowed. Sorry to give you the whole story, but it reminds me so much of yours. I don't know if you have all the death certificates for the people you are searching for, but I know in Australia they give a lot of information. I found out that Eliza's boys thought she married Burgess way back in England. She must have told them all that their real father was Burgess and no one questioned it. For some reason, she kept them all away from Patrick or maybe he just stayed away. Good luck, Liz