I wonder how often this happened to married couples after wars? It may be the answer why some ancestors were missing.
He Returned After Many Years’ Absence And Finds His Wife Married
(Transcribed from the Times Daily, Florence, Alabama July 11, 1890)
Birmingham, July 2—
Jack Atkinson of Franklin County, Ala., who has been missing since the war, returned to his old home last week. His wife heard he was killed in a battle near the close of the war, and a few years later she married again. her second husband is still living.
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Went to California
Atkinson said he started home some time after the war but heard his wife had married again, and he went to California. There he married and lived until a few years ago, when his wife died. He came back to see if his first wife was a widow, but finding that she is not, he will return to California.
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Many times for all wars. WWII: Cousin told me he, his brother and mother used to travel to Italy to see family every few years. In 1938, they became stranded there. Father owned a farm in Connecticut. He would send packages and letters. Told them the war was good for farm business. He had to hire help to run farm and even a housekeeper he was so busy. In 1945 when they were able to return, his mother would not leave! She said she had been replaced by housekeeper. My cousin was about 12 at time. He never saw his mother again.
Yeah
Treva Anderson…interesting
Happened to my GGgrandfather during the War Between the States, plus his wife and new hubby had spend all his money.
This also happened in the Holtam family in Clarke Co. Ft Singuefield.
Must have happened a lot. great story thanks
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It supposedly happened in my family. I was skeptical but with these other reports maybe it really did happen.
anyone like this as much as me
And sometimes the husband just disappeared, went off and married someone else.
My Uncle was missing in action in WW11, body never found…plane went down, my aunt never remarried. Always hoped they could find him. His name on memorial in Punch Bowl. Sad.
During the Civil War my gr-gr-uncle, David Brogdon of Marion County, SC, stopped by to see his wife and infant son but would not go inside because he said he had mites on him. He left and they never saw him again. I know his wife remarried after a few years and I wonder if David died or married again. I think he cared for his family since he visited them. I feel that most probably he was killed in the War or by one of the rogue groups of deserters that roamed the county at that time, creating havoc. I guess we’ll never know. There are a lot of sad stories from the War Between the States, esp. all over the South.
Where was he during those post war years??
Taylor Giddiens
I have a situation not far off from this. I had no info on a 3x great grandfather except that he “died” when my 2x great grandmother was very little. I finally tracked down an old family Bible with his name and birth date. No death date. No grave was locate at the cemetery he was suppose to be buried at. Got on Ancestry, I found census records with my 3x great grandparents where they should be with my 2x great grandmother and her younger brother. At the next census, he is gone, she is remarried (oddly enough to my 3x great grandfather from a different family line). I find him a few counties over with a whole new family, living next to his parents. The sad thing is he was alive long enough to have met his grandchildren and great grandchildren, if they had only known about him.
As to what happened, it has sadly been lost in time.
Wow! So sad!