Ironing Out the Wrinkle

In a previous post, I mentioned that a record had shown the youngest child of Martin and Amanda Rice to have a different mother than Amanda. I theorized that there could have been a divorce, separation or simply a clerical error in transcribing the information. I went back and looked through Martin's Civil War pension record, a heft 100+ pages, and found several pages devoted to the subject only because they didn't have a birth certificate for their youngest child, Roy Rice. I have clipped portions of three notarized affidavits testifying that there wasn't a divorce, separation and that Roy was their child. Transcriptions follow each clipping.

That Amanda V. Rice did live with her husband Martin Rice to the date of his death, May 24th, 1899, and never was divorced from him and that she, Amanda V. Rice, has not remarried since her husband's death. That Ida May Rice born Nov 22nd, 1885 and Roy Edward Rice born May 10th, 1892 are both living and are dependent upon their mother Amanda V. Rice. 

That he was the attending physician at the time of the birth of Roy Edward Rice, a son of Martin and Amanda V. Rice of the town of Whiting, County of Monona, State of Iowa. That by his records he knows this aforesaid son was born on the 10th day of May A.D. 1892 in the town of Whiting, County of Monona, State of Iowa; and that the aforesaid Roy Edward Rice is still living and is dependent upon his mother Amanda V. Rice.

That they were married one to the other in 1869 and that they lived together as husband and wife from the year 1869 to 1899 the year of the soldier's (Martin Rice's) death, and that Amanda V. Rice has not remarried since her husband's death. That he knows from personal acquaintance with Martin Rice and his wife Amanda V. Rice that they were never divorced or in any other way separated from each other from the year in which they were married (1869) until the soldier's death in 1899.