After reading that Keziah Clay Burns and John Mavity Burns divorced, and that he married his second wife Josephine in 1875, I found a pair of 1880 US Census records that raise a question. In one, John (noted as "married") is living in the home of widow (so noted on the form) Josephine Bryant, her two teen Bryant sons, and her three (not two) Burns daughters at East Fork, Boyd. There is also a second, much older, Burns man. Oddly, the transcriber omitted all three Bryants from the Burns household, but grouped them separately, even though they are recorded as a single household. In the other record, John is living with his wife Keziah and daughter Minnie in Ashland, with their surname in error as "Barns." This pair of records would seem to indicate John and Josephine had not "tied the knot" by 1880, even if he and Kizzie were divorced contrary to the Ashland record.

I also found Josephine's records for 1860 (married to John Bryant, misspelled "Briant") with a daughter (Mildred "Milly"), and widowed in 1870 with the three Bryant children, plus baby Corra Lee listed as a Bryant. As a side note, her possible namesake, John and Kizzie's daughter, lived only a year and is buried in Catlettsburg.

Can anyone shed light on the conflicts between the family story and the Census records? They seem to agree, up to the point of marriage status. Josephine's death record indicates she was married to John, so when did they seal their vows?