Do you record re-marriages?

[Nick Carver]

My experience of this is finding my gg grandmother marrying the lodger some years after the death of her husband. The census showed her age as declining by 25 years over the decade between censuses, doubtless to minimise the effect of the 25 years she had spent on this earth before the birth of her second husband. I'd love to find a photograph

[ambers]

Hi Nick,

Be grateful, if she could lie and get away with it, she must have looked young for her age...and hopefully it will run in the family

Regards Amber

[Captain (aka Graham in Reading)]

I'd say recording 2nd, 3rd, all known marriages is essential.  Even non-marriages.    What?  Well I have one of my G-grandfathers who never married my g-grandmother, although they had one child - my grandmother.  What's unusual about that?  Well because we think he was still married at the time, to someone else and had three children with HER.
All that info is essential to putting his life together.

[ambers]

Thank you all for your views, and sharing thebackground of your own families with regard to including re-marriages ....and some cases of none marriage included

I really wanted a complete picture of my ancestors, not just a skeleton with lists of names and dates.

Hopefully I will find a skeleton in the cupboard at some time when I have gained more experience. We are all looking a little too perfect at the moment,  now that's not right because I must follow someone 

Ambers

[trish251]

Hi Ambers

What threw me was the professional charts with only one box for grandparents, so how would I account for a change of name on death  if the re-marriage wasn't noted.

Perhaps these charts relate to the concept of tracing a single persons' ancestors backwards. Despite multiple marriages etc, we all have only one biological mother and father. Thus said - and as mentioned by others - all of the extra relationships are critical to get the complete picture - and to get it right 

Trish

[ambers]

Hi Trish,

Of course when it's your tree, you only have to list your parents......I didn't think of it from that point of view.

I guess I am a sharer by nature, and always go for the bigger picture...well that's my excuse  anyway

Ambers

[lizdb]

I'll say what I always say to these sorts of questions -

Always record everything!!

You never know when a seemingly insignificant piece of info will suddenly become the final link in piecing something together in the future.

Just think when you are struggling with the 2011 census and you finally find a possible Fred Smith lodging with Bill Jones who he describes as a stepbrother. Is he yours?? You deliberate long and hard. But.....yes! you had made a note that Fred's mum in her twilight years remarried to a Mr Jones.

[ambers]

Lizdb...

Funny you should mention the name Jones...I received a birth certificate to-day with---Formerly Jones as the mother, his father is noted as deceased on his marriage certificate.

As a newbie I am really stuck with tracing his parents,  the 1871 Census  has him as a Lodger, the 1861 with his Grandmother, he wasn't born for the 1851

Now where do I post asking for help...HERE  for BEGINNERS or Carmarthenshire. 

Ambers

[lizdb]

Tell us more and we'll see what we can do!

Tell us all you DO know, so we dont duplicate -
full name, exact wording on his birth cert for mum and dad, exact wording on marriage cert etc, details of what censuses you have checked and what you found etc.