I have no direct knowledge of these folks, but I do have some personal experience with second marriage mysteries in my own research. In the days before computers and such, anyone could say anything they liked about themselves and no one could really prove otherwise, especially in the case of immigrants.
My own great grandmother married in Scotland, immigrated to Canada with her husband, was abandoned here by him when he returned to Scotland, took a job as a housekeeper and married her boss. She put 'widow' on the marriage reg. (she had a child), but her first husband lived on another 40+ years! Would have loved to have been a fly on the wall the day his solicitor sent her divorce papers so first husband could legally remarry, and this was over 20 years since she had (not quite legally) remarried.
My husband's great aunt married a bachelor. Well, she thought he was, because that is what he told her, but he got worried about lying in a house of God and so confessed that he had been married, had 2 kids and was widowed back in England. He confessed this while standing at the alter about to get married!
