An enigma wrapped in a conundrum

Question

I'm researching the children of a female relative, Sarah Augusta Scott Thayer Saunders. The relative was married to a man named Thayer. After no more than eleven years of marriage, they divorced. Mr. Thayer moved to New York (from Virginia) and married a widow whose married name was Porter.

The female relative married another man the same year. Both girls lived with their father, which I assume means he won custody of them legally.

But somehow, the girls ended up with the surname Porter. I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea that the stepmother adopted the daughters AND gave them, not her maiden name, but her married name from her previous marriage instead of retaining their father's name.

Does anyone know if Virginia court records for divorces are available online?

Is it safe to assume that any adoption proceedings would have taken place in New York? If so, does anyone know if NY Adoption records are searchable online?

Answer 1

Hi Paul, You might want to add a tag for adoption, as there are many researchers, here, who work on adoption, and know the ins and outs of the process and the records that might be available.

Comments

Thanks, Mark. Since posting that, I have figured out what happened. The husband (Willie) and wife (Sarah) divorced. Willie then moved to New York and boarded with the widow that he subsequently married. Her dead husband's surname was Porter. (He was born in Scotland.)

Sarah then met someone new and married him in Washington, D.C. (I don't know if she moved there.)

The kids were placed with Willie's sister, who happened to have married a Porter and lived in Petersburg. (Completely unrelated to the Porter who had married Willie's second wife and then died.)

The sister and her husband then adopted the girls. So, all the legal documentation would be in VA, which is where I will search.

This was all caused by me not paying closer attention to the details of the Census. I assumed that the name of the male in the Census was the father, and the census taker just miswrote the name. Had I paid attention to the location, I would have noticed it was VA, not NY.

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I'm glad you were able to sort it out, Paul.

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Persistence pays off again!  Digging in to the details is often a key to solving a mystery.  Glad that you asked and then let us know you made a breakthrough on your own.  That will make it easier for one of us to give better advice.  Wish you luck.