Godfrey Winkler married Elizabeth Merrill (1799-1857) in 1816, in Rowan North Carolina, and had one daughter, Sarah (1822-1900). We have no pictures of Godfrey or Elizabeth.

Sarah Winkler Frank 1822-1900

Then he married Leah Huddleston in 1823 in Madison, Indiana, and had ten additional children.

This wasn’t unusual, as often there is a second marriage after the death of the first spouse. But, Elizabeth didn’t die until 1857.

I believe divorce was unusual in those days – I’ve hardly ever seen a record of it back then. And there doesn’t appear to be one for Godfrey and Elizabeth. So that leaves us with the question of what happened?

There’s really no information to be had – just one line I saw in a family history done by Mabel Roper or Blanche Bratcher (Our grandmother and great aunt). When they came to Godfrey Winkler, their great-grandfather, they wrote “disappeared around 1823.” I guess that’s all they knew of him, not knowing he was still around and remarried with all those kids. There was no Ancestry back then to provide these details.

Godfrey and Elizabeth Winkler

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