Why Did Great Aunt Jane Marry the Same Man Twice?Author(s): Martin GraySource: North Irish Roots, Vol. 7, No. 1 (1996), p. 18Published by: North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27697049 .

Accessed: 10/06/2014 11:03

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to North Irish Roots.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.157 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:03:06 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

WHY DID GREAT AUNT JANE MARRY THE SAME MAN TWICE?

Martin Gray, Member number B 552

I never could have known my grandmother Eliza Gray's sister Jane Martin. She died long before I

was born, as indeed did my grandparents Robert and Eliza Gray. My father and mother had also

died by the time, as a senior citizen, I embarked on a search for my antecedents. In trying to put flesh on many names I was dependent on charts I recalled my father working on when I was a

child and when, as I now regret, I was uninterested in such matters.

Dad's charts showed Jane Martin married to Henry Hendlin, with eight children, their wives or

husbands and some grandchildren. In looking for Jane I spent many hours at a microfilm screen

with the indexes of marriages seeking to locate matching numbers for a Jane Martin and a Henry Hendlin with a total lack of success.

Later while trying to link Jane's brother John Martin to a possible Barkley wife I came by chance, in

the index for marriages for 1850, upon a James Bradley who had married a Jane Martin! Perhaps the name on dad's chart was intended to be Bradley rather than Barkley and that it was Jane

rather than John who had been married! A copy certificate obtained from the Dublin Record Office was as follows:

This certificate looked as if it might possibly be for great-aunt Jane but if that was correct where

did my father get the information on Henry Hendlin and the eight children noted on his chart? Tom,

Harry, Jack, Phoebe, Alec, Elizabeth Mary, Kate and Nance were hardly invented out of thin air.

Could it be the wrong Jane Martin although the address and the father shown were correct?

Perhaps James Bradley had died and Jane had married again! There was nothing for it but to start

again on the marriage indexes.

In searching the marriage indexes this time I was looking simply for any reference to Henry Hendlin and not trying for a match. I eventually found two Henry Hendlins- one in 1856 and

another in 1857. I requested certificates-immediately from Dublin with the following results:

Presumably Jane's first husband, the butcher, had died but I see no way to prove this as

registration of deaths in Ireland did not start till 1864. The shock came when I looked at the second

certificate!

This second certificate was also for a marriage of great aunt Jane to Henry Hendlin, but in a

different church!

Jane's marriage to Henry Hendlin in Eglinton Street Presbyterian Church correctly shows her as

Jane Bradley, Widow but by the following year at St Anne's she has become rather more

economical with the truth as she is shown as Jane Bradley, Spinster. James Bradley Is her father and not James Martin. The witnesses for both ceremonies have the same names but the

Presbyterian certificate has bride, groom and the witnesses signing their own names while at St Anne's all four are shown as having made their marks. It is quite clear from other sources that they were literate so why did each just make a mark? Perhaps this was a way of keeping their fingers crossed!

What happened to the family? Where and when were all the children born? Dad listed descendants with surnames such as Hendlin, Deal, Lowe and Weeks. Did they survive and are there any distant cousins of mine now living in far flung reaches of the world? Perhaps one day they will be found!

The puzzle remains: "Why did Great Aunt Jane marry the same man twice?"

18

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.157 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:03:06 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions