Could there have been a divorce?
My great grandmother was divorced back in the late 1870's and it was considered a disgrace.
All that was ever said through all the years since about that divorce was he was "unkind" to their child.
It was not spoken or mentioned in any way because the less said, the better.
Could that have been the mind set of the family?
So when my great grandmother married my great grandfather, he brought four children and she brought one
and between them they had another houseful of children. She also refered to her last husband as "Mr. Harper"
and never called him by his first name since he was 16 years older.
Times have certainly changed!