Linda, The answer may be simpler than you suspect. I have encountered several examples in my research where one spouse just up and abandoned the other. This seems to have been a de facto divorce. As your husband suggests, the three marriages may have occurred because the man was a scoundrel, or simply a bad husband. The wives may have gotten tired of his behavior and left him. I have at least one example of that happening where a child was involved, and the husband was left with the child. You mentioned the second wife giving birth; do you know what became of the child? Did it stay with the father, or go with the mother? Gordon