Chances are, at some point in your research, it's going to happen. You find evidence that a couple were not married for at least nine months before the birth of their firstborn, a soldier deserts, a woman is always listed as married in the census listings but her husband is never included in the household, etc.
And you thought that the decay of the moral fiber of mere mortals was a recent thing?
If it will disturb you to find out that your relations have done some not-s0-nice things or things that may embarass you, don't start researching. Because the chances are quite good that you will find something.
Like getting my grandparents' marriage license and realizing that they were only married for seven months before the birth of my aunt. Now, it's not terribly shocking - even taking into account that the marriage happened in 1920 - nor should I probably read too much into it; after all, premature babies are born everyday. And my grandparents had been dead over 30 years when I found this out. Doesn't lessen what few memories I have of them.
I don't fudge the marriage date on my records - I figure that my dad should have been able to figure this out on his own a while ago.
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