Multiple Marriages

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, 'with people living longer, roughly one in four people ages 59 and older has married two or more times, according to census data.' That is good stuff, but rather funny, too, given that through history people have married multiple times, though because wives either die in child birth or because widows need to marry again in order to be 'protected' by a man. It has complicated my genealogical research, particularly in Nantucket, because on that island we see cousins marrying one another, as well as the youngest child of one generation marrying the oldest of another generation and really making following the names confusing. With the habit of naming children after family members, and even naming a child after a previously deceased child within the same family, one can tie to the wrong person in a tree. Interesting stuff, though complicates the research.