Conklin/Gould

I made a little breakthrough last night with my roadblock which is trying to find the parents of Caroline E. Conklin (b. 13 Mar 1855 in New York, d. 8 Dec 1892 in Greenbush, Clinton, Michigan) by having another look at her marriage certificate and then again at the 1870 census. Her marriage certificate said that she and her husband Theodore Lyon were married by an O. E. Gould in Springside, Pottawatomie, Kansas. There's a Caroline Conklin living with an Orlando E. Gould in the 1870 census. At that point, they were in Hartford, Connecticut. Gould's two oldest daughters were born in New York, as was his wife. So, I'm wondering if a) Emma Gold, his first wife, was an aunt of my Caroline, b) Orlando was a brother to Caroline's mother, or c) they're just friends of the family. Perhaps Caroline's father died in the Civil War? There does seem to be a Conklin family everywhere there's a a large Gould family in the census. Just makes it more complicated. Rootsweb lists a couple unions between the two families. I'm just not sure that they match what I have.

Caroline's death certificate says that her parents names are John and Elizabeth Conklin (both born in New York), but I'm trying to avoid pinning myself to those first names--though as I've found out, there are a lot of John and Elizabeth Conklins--and a lot of Gould family members seemingly by the most reasonable suspects for parentage. Makes it difficult to see if she can be found in the 1860 census.

Any ideas? I feel I need another pair of eyes. At least I have a little more to go on now. And I'm also wondering how common it was for a relative (in this case a carpenter) or guardian to marry their children. Haven't run across that before.