A cautionary tale.

[coombs]

And of course if a man is named as the father on a birth cert it does not always mean he was the correct one. If a woman was abused or neglected by her husband she may have sought comfort elsewhere, or if he was away in the army or navy a lot, or she simply had a brief liaison even if happily married. On male lines the chance of an NPE is a bit higher whereas it is always 99.9% certain the mother is the correct one. Hence why you may do DNA and find the odd ancestor was not a blood ancestor, another man, or couple were.

[Erato]

My gg-grandmother divorced my gg-grandfather in 1882.  Public opinion in the small town of Hortonville, indeed in all of Outagamie County, was not on his side.  The press was brutal.  He was openly mocked on the streets by insolent school children.  He was probably a wife beater and definitely a crazed and belligerent drunk, a womanizer and a rapacious businessman.  When he finally died, leaving the scant remains of his fortune to his 'housekeeper,' the Appleton Crescent summed it up, "Today old Mr. Cyrus Ware, a former resident of Hortonville, was buried; the remains were brought by rail from Illinois, and two carriages, besides the bearers and the hearse, were all the procession to follow the dead, one-time millionaire."

He wasn't actually a millionaire but he had been quite wealthy before he went bonkers and threw it all away on women, booze and ill-considered gold mining investments.

[DianaCanada]

"sent a letter to the Navy H Q and said seaman was 'advised!' to marry the daughter"

So, in effect, the government used an implicit threat to force the man to marry the woman.  I don't see any morality in that.

I couldn’t agree more.

[Guy Etchells]

My 4x great grandmother in Scotland left her husband in one town, and lived with her daughter in another town. He died with no family near him. I wonder if they even went to his funeral?

And back in the very early 1700s in Cheshire, my 7x great grandmother left her husband and went to live with her sister and husband. It's all written in my 7x great grandfather's will that she lives with this other man. - 'as she voluntarily left me'.  No mention that the other man was married to her sister - I had to dig deep to find that out. In his will he does pay her maintenance of three pounds a year as long as she "shall not live upon the said tenements any ways to molest my sons".
I'd love to have been a fly on the wall to find out what that was all about!

I think to think these women were strong and brave to do this, despite the restrictions on womens' lives at those times.

I would suggest he was frightened that his wife would try to turn their sons against him, so he left her a dowery on condition she kept her mouth shut about him.
Cheers
Guy

[Mike in Cumbria]

He wasn't actually a millionaire but he had been quite wealthy before he went bonkers and threw it all away on women, booze and ill-considered gold mining investments.

He sounds a lot like the footballer, George Best when asked what had happened to his fortune. “I spent a lot of money on booze, birds, and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.”.

[coombs]

I say about 1 to 3% of ancestors will not be your biological ancestors, that is quite a close estimate. While most of them will be, always be prepared for the odd surprise. In 1861 the population of England and Wales was about 20 million, so about 300'000 people were born to fathers other than the mothers husband, or both parents not the blood parents. One day, the DNA testing may provide a accurate percentage as more people submit their DNA. 

I think an unexpected pregnancy between a couple was a reason behind many marriages, aka the shotgun wedding, hence the huge number of pregnant brides. I have a couple who wed a day before their first child was born.