Snippets for Aunt Sharon: “Widow or Wife?” Accidentally Married to Two Men at Once!

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March is Women's History Month! It's time for the spotlight to shine on the ladies in our family trees. I'll be writing all month on women I've researched. I encourage all family history lovers to take the month to seek out the stories of our foremothers! They are often under-documented and yet, they have a lot to teach us.

This week's post is serving double duty as another in the series of research finds for my Aunt Sharon AND a Women's History Month post.

 

Everyday women are frequently hidden in our family history stories. Relinquishing their maiden names at marriage, they are often referred to as "Mrs. (insert Husband's Surname)," or "...and wife," in historical documents, newspapers, etc.

So, it is a real treat to find a source which details so much of a woman's life as did a newspaper article I found on one of my Aunt Sharon's great-grandmothers, Ann Jane Laughlin (Abt. 1838-1916), who went by Jane.

The story of Jane and Thomas Shannon, her first husband, was splashed across the pages of the 27 November 1888 issue of Cleveland's The Plain Dealer, with the provocative headline:¹

Jane was born in Brockville, Leeds County, Canada West (now Ontario), about 211 miles northeast of Toronto.² In 1858, young Jane married Thomas Shannon, against her family’s wishes.³ The couple lived in Brockville for a few years and when the American Civil War broke out, Thomas enlisted in the Union cause. Jane never heard from him again. After many years, she assumed that he had died in the war. She moved with her family first to Toronto, and then to Cleveland, where she married James Maher, Aunt Sharon's great-grandfather, on 25 November 1867.⁴ 

Jane and James Maher's Cleveland marriage record.

Fast forward to 23 November 1888. Who arrived looking for his wife in Brockville but the long-thought-dead soldier Thomas Shannon! Finding out then that his young wife Jane had thought him dead, moved to Cleveland, and married again, he left Brockville without pursuing the matter further. 

In the meantime, an acquaintance in Brockville who knew both Shannon and Jane, apparently sent a Brockville Times article about Shannon's search to The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. 

 

After receiving the article and wanting to know more, The Plain Dealer advertised for, "Information as to the present address of Mrs. Shannon, daughter of William Laughlin, formerly of Canada." Seeing the ad, Jane went with a sister to The Plain Dealer offices to answer.

(Side Note: An "Enoch Arden" romance refers to poem written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in 1864. The poem lends its name to a principle in law that after being missing for a certain number of years (typically seven) a person may be declared dead for purposes of remarriage and inheritance of their survivors.)⁵ 

Imagine Jane’s shock to discover she had not been widowed all those years before and had actually been married to both Shannon and Maher at the same time! By the time the article was published, Jane considered herself a widow twice over, as her second husband, James Maher, had died eight years before.⁶ It must have been strange indeed to have an unknown reporter relate details of your own life to you as you patiently sat in the offices of a bustling newsroom!

After the reporter read the Brockville newpaper article aloud, Jane shared more details about her experiences with the ne'er do well Shannon, which included physical abuse and bringing a strange woman into their home. Jane had nothing good to say about Shannon, exclaiming at one point during the interview: "He can go to pot!"

I wonder if neighbors and friends commented to Jane after reading the account. Did she suffer whispers and disapproving looks, or did she receive sympathy and understanding from those around her?

If her "He can go to pot!" comment is any indication, it appears Jane was a plucky survivor, who brooked no nonsense and made the best of her situation.

What did you think of how Jane was portrayed in the article? Was the story sensationalized? If so, why might that have been? Should this story have been "news" at all?

It's helpful to cast a critical eye on newspaper coverage of our ancestors as they lived in different times when society had different rules. Even though Jane's very private life was put out for the whole world to see, her descendants benefit today from learning so much about her story, when so many women's stories have been lost. 

Until next time...

© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2026. All rights reserved.



NOTES

¹ "Widow or Wife," Cleveland Plain Dealer [Cleveland, Ohio], 27 Nov. 1888, p. 4; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image-view/1076314310/?match=1&terms=%22william%20laughlin%22 : accessed 1 Dec. 2025; citing The Brockville Times (Leeds & Grenville, Ontario, Canada), n.d.

² 1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, Leeds County, Brockville, Enumeration District (ED) 3, West Ward, line 35, Ann Jane Laughlin in the Wm. Laughlin household; imaged, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1061/images/e095-e002357251 : accessed 3 December 2025); citing Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.

³ "Ontario, Marriage Registers, 1858-1869," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L96W-VS7H : accessed 1 Dec. 2025), entry for Thomas Shannon & Anne Jane Loughlin, 31 May 1858; citing Record Group 8, Series I-6-B, Volume 28, Leeds & Grenville Counties Marriage Registers, Archives of Ontario, Toronto.

⁴ "Widow or Wife," Cleveland Plain Dealer. Also, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Marriage Records, May 1866-Nov. 1868, p. 85, James Maher and Jane Laughlin, 25 Nov. 1867; imaged, "Cuyahoga County, Ohio, U.S., Marriage Records and Indexes, 1810-1973," Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1876/images/32365_225646-00407 : accessed 1 Dec. 2025); citing Probate Court, Cleveland.

⁵ Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch_Arden : accessed 27 Feb. 2026), "Enoch Arden," last edited on 18 December 2025, at 17:19 (UTC).

⁶ Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Probate Court, Record of Deaths, Vol. 2, 1878-1884, p. 49, #26, James Mahar, 1 Dec. 1879; imaged, "Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L98Q-C5J : accessed 11 Feb. 2026); citing Cuyahoga County Probate Court, Cleveland.