Woman changed her surname 6 times?

Question

Margaret Olive (1926 - 1991) had the following surnames:

1. Wells
2. High
3. Miller
4. Shipley
5. Boyington
6. Grable
7. Morley

The first two are easily explainable. One's her maiden name, the other is her married name.

But what about the others?

She died with the name Morley, so I thought that was her second husband's name. But if we assume every new name represents a new husband, she'd have had 6 husbands.

Comments

Criminal history or credit reports along with residents may hold answers.

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The only interesting thing I know about her is she gave up a son for adoption, Bill Earl High (1950 - 2004). I'm interested in this because his grandson (has WikiTree profile here) has been tested with 23andMe so we have his haplogroup. It seems more Irish, more consistent with his father's mother's side, rather than German, which is where this line of High (Hoch) comes from.

So there is room for doubt that Bill's father was actually Hobert High, and I'm trying to clear this up.

Answer 1

Here is a Margaret O. Grable who married Lester G. Morley on 26 January 1976 in Miami-Dade, Florida:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VJD6-XJB

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VJHR-6T7

The index splits the bride and groom's entries, but we know this pertains to one marriage from the date and certificate number.

Answer 2

What appears to be the abstract of her Social Security record is posted to her profile with all of those names as ones she used.

Answer 3

They might all be husbands. If some of the relationships were short lived or annulled, she might have just gone back to using a previous name because that's what she was known by.

My great-grandmother did that with her five husbands.

1. Marries husband 1. Changed surname from maiden name. Gets divorced.
2. Marries husband two. May have used his name, but gets divorce or annulment pretty quickly. Goes back to using name of husband 1.
3. Marries husband three. Uses his name. They divorce.
4. Marries husband four. Uses his name briefly. They divorce and she goes back to using husband three's name.
5. Marries husband five. May have used his name. They divorce. Again, she goes back to using husband three's name.

When I started doing genealogy, I asked my dad if her last name was her maiden name or the name of her last husband. He said "Neither! It was the name of her favorite husband." That was #3.

She was born in 1878, so she didn't have a ton of official social security or other records following her around with all those names. But if she'd been born 50 years later, they'd probably all show up in searches more easily.