Maybe I've misunderstood the situation, but it has been MY understanding that divorces in the 17th century under British/ English rule were devilishly hard to obtain, either in England or the Colonies. OTOH, maybe I'm overlooking something important. (g) He marries She. They have 13 kids. He then marries She-2; no issue. He now marries She-3; no issue. She marries (2nd) He-2 who DSPs and She marries (3rd) He-3. The dates do not permit the warm embrace of the notion that there are 3 men of the same name and three women of the same name. And, I suppose, since my interest is in one of the early ones of the 13, it doesn't actually /matter/ to the lineage I'm looking at, but still ... ...if there's no divorce and nobody died, how'd both halves of the couple manage to remarry? It's a puzzlement, as this week's Sunday crossword suggests. Cheryl singhals <singhals@erols.com>