I have an ancestor, Harriett Agusta Brown, who only seems to be mentioned as having married Maxwell J Palen. She is the apparent mother of his three children. After they married in Illinois in 1844, I can't find any mention of her again. Maxwell got a land patent in DuPage Co Illinois in 1848, his last child was born approx 1849 (supposedly in Will Co, Illinois), he got a land patent in Iowa in 1855, and remarried in Indiana 1860.
However, I'm not finding a grave for Harriett (or Harriet) Palen (other than an unrelated in New York) in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, or Michigan (some of Maxwell's children lived in Michigan) for her. I did find a marriage entry for a Harriet Palin marrying an Asa Kittredge in Illinois that I need to pull, but I find it unlikely for a divorce to have occurred in this time period (also the "re-marriage" doesn't match up with potential birth dates for her three children with Maxwell.)
Would a divorce have occurred in this time period? Would Harriett have kept her maiden name and be marked on her grave as Harriett Brown?
