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Archiver > ONTARIO > 2008-05 > 1211971932


From: "Betty" <>
Subject: Re: [ONTARIO] Bigamy and its pitfalls
Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 06:52:12 -0400
References: <mailman.7920.1211938487.32677.ontario@rootsweb.com><009801c8c071$cbb6ee60$6401a8c0@your4dacd0ea75>


Hi Alan,

I'll bet many of us have a story to tell. I have an uncle in MA/US who
"disappeared" around 1950 - never to be seen nor heard from again.
Because of the Internet, I found out he died in Arizona in 1996. Many
letters, queries, and waiting later, I obtained his "death notice" which
mentioned children. He had abandoned a new wife and a baby son when he
left MA. My guess was that the children in AZ were his step-children.
Later, I found one of his step-daughters. A letter from her said that he
had arrived in AZ around 1980 and met her mother, and off they went to Las
Vegas. They died within a month of each other 10 years later.

The step-daughter said that "Dean" never talked about his previous life, and
said he had no children. But she had seen a "death notice" which said he
had lost a wife in Florida, and they had been married for 30 years.
Unfortunately this lady couldn't find the "death notice" in her moving
boxes, and she didn't know the Florida wife's name. (Florida is a hard
state to research.) Uncle Dean had abandoned a son in MA, and he
could very easily have had children in FL. But, without the name of his
Florida wife, I cannot find out if he did. So, my uncle had 3 wives,
there was no divorce from the first one.

Betty (near Lowell, MA, USA)


P.S. In the same extended family, Uncle Dean's father and mother had
"eloped" to Vermont in 1917; he had just turned 18 and she was 17 and
pregnant. They lost that baby and another baby, and then had 3 children
who lived. But they had a terrible marriage and did divorce in 1935.
But? My grandmother was already pregnant with the man who would become her
2nd husband. Both grandfather and grandmother remarried a few months
after the divorce. My grandfather's 2nd wife, had already been divorced
twice. Hazel was born in New Brunswick and had a son there, but left for
Massachusetts - seemingly abandoning her son. She soon married Charles and
had 4 children and divorced him. My grandfather became their step-father.
These children grew up not knowing about the son in New Brunswick. In
fact their families had been told that the son in NB had "drowned" as a
child. Hazel died in 1949, and my grandfather remarried in 1952, so he had
more step-children (no more birth-children).

Note: Because of my many queries on the Lists and Boards, I got in touch
with the daughters of my grandfather's step-children from 2nd wife. We
drove for 2 hours to meet them. They had never learned about their
family-tree, so I volunteered to start one for them. My research showed
that that son in New Brunswick had not drowned; he had lived to adulthood
and married, and lived about an hour away from his half-siblings in MA.

Story: I also got in touch with a step-daughter from the 3rd wife.
This was Chicopee, MA, where many Canadians came down to work in the mills
in Springfield, MA (his 3rd wife had). In the basement of this
step-daughter's home was a "hope chest." It was the hope chest of the 2nd
wife. To make a long story short, I contacted the step-granddaughter of
the 2nd wife, and she went over to retrieve the hope chest from the
step-daughter of the 3rd wife. In the hope chest was my grandfather's
wallet from 1961. There were "family pictures" and his "fishing license"
and "driver's license" in it. She took the pictures and sent me the
wallet. (no pictures of me)





----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Richards" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 11:20 PM
Subject: Re: [ONTARIO] Bigamy and its pitfalls


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