Sarah Slater's Second Husband

[Susan Higginbotham]

(02-13-2016 01:16 AM)SSlater Wrote:  Congratulations Susan, that was a "super" find. Now that I know... it shows up in the "NY, NY Marriage Index 1866 - 1937." How did you find this ? I'm guessing, but I think she married him to get rid of the "Slater" name. It appears that she never lived with him - that would remove the possibilities of Parent/Child conflicts. I don't believe a word of the "Divorce " papers. That also was get rid of the name, caper. When she married Spencer, she ignores her Hitch with Rowan and says she was married only once -to Long. (Do you want a copy of that License?)( I didn't find a record of Divorces in NY.)
Seeing Josephine in NY is news to me. Mama was there (A. R. Gilbert), so was Eugene. Unfortunately, the "City Directories" show only the "Wage Earner" and sometimes the spouse - but never the children. Is there anything else to find?

Thanks! Family Search has her mis-indexed as "Nellie" Slater. I stumbled upon that one evening and my antennae went up.

Maybe it's just because it's Valentine's Day weekend, but I'm more inclined to think the Long marriage was entered into in good faith by both parties. The marriage was listed in at least one newspaper, and I just don't see Jacob Long saddling himself with a wife he didn't intend to live with. He was a relatively recent widower (his first wife died in 1864), and I think he probably wanted a companion. And his political opponents would no doubt have had some rude comments to make as to why he hadn't let his wife move in with him. As for Sarah, I think if all she wanted to do was to change her name, she would have been better off finding some obscure man who was getting ready to head out West, or someone like that, and then claim to be widowed after he left town. As it was, Long could offer her a comfortable home (probably with excellent gas lighting!) which was probably also an attraction.