I’ve been failing at my goal to post each week. I think it’s been about a month since my last post so I thought I’d try to make up for that with a bit of genealogical entertainment straight from my tree. Welcome to the Whiteley and Hyde families Marrying Mess, complete with hand drawn flow chart – a good use of coloring time with my 3 year old.
Henry Hyde and Ann Whiteley are my 3rd great grandparents. They married in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England in 1873 and moved to Canada. Eleven years later, Ann died leaving Henry with two (possibly three) young girls to care for. Ann died in November and Henry returned to England and married Ann’s sister Alice Whiteley in January. He left his infant daughter Rosey with his parents and took his daughter Alice, his new bride Alice, and moved to Alaska.
Henry and Alice spent 22 years together before his death in 1907 in Alaska. About two years after his demise, Alice married Henry’s brother Arthur. Alice and Arthur spent about 10 years together before his death in 1919.
All of this I knew. And I had known it for sometime. But just last week I made some new discoveries that make this story even more interesting – and matrimonially messy.
After Arthur died, Alice lived with his brother Robert. I’m not sure how long they lived together or what the nature of their relationship was, but in the 1920 census they are living together in Brush Prarie, Clark, Washington.
Sometime between the 1920 census and Robert’s death in 1928, it appears he may have married his niece Rosey Hyde – his first known marriage and her second of three. Hmmmmm. That is a story worthy of its own post.
Meanwhile back in England, Ann and Alice’s mother Eliza died leaving their father George Whiteley a widower. George married Martha Marsden, his sons-in-law’s mother’s sister – his second marriage, her third.
And for just a dash of extra spice, Arthur was married in England with four children prior to his arrival in Alaska. I don’t know what happened to his wife, but his children are alive and well and living with neighbors after he leaves England. I have a theory about this. But that is also a story for another day.
And there you have it – the Whiteley and Hyde families Marrying Mess – and what a beautiful mess it is!
Do you have any families in your tree that had multiple matrimonial connections?