Genealogy Chat

I have traced many of my family members but I am unable to find any evidence of divorces despite the headings in the search categories. Why is that . Is there some trick I need to know about? :-S

Welcome to the boards Roger

There are some divorces online but nothing recent....I assume you mean on Genes? or is this somewhere else?

Also divorce was very expensive so not many were able to afford it so there were quite a few bigamist marriages

After 1937 you will not really find anything

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/divorce.htm

The survival rate of divorce case files is:

1858-1927: almost 100%
1928-1937: 80%
After 1937 : less than 0.2%

Before 1858, a full divorce required a private act of Parliament so the opportunity was only available to a few people.
Divorce case files can contain petitions, certificates, and copies of the decrees nisi and absolute.
Decrees absolute give the names of the petitioner, respondent and (if applicable) co-respondent and the date and place of the marriage.
The Supreme Court and some county courts grant divorces in England and Wales.
Until 1971 divorce by mutual consent was not allowed.

Why do you think any of your family divorced?

Do you have re-marriage certs which state 'previous marriage dissolved'?


Divorce was not, in the past, the 'quick-fix' it is nowadays

Many people in by-gone days just lived with a new partner and took their name. It probably still happens!

Both my parents had earlier marriages and my mother had at least three children in her first marriage. I was born in her second "marriage" but I have since discovered that my parents actually only married , apparently in secret, in 1965. That was when I was 19. I assumed that she got divorced in the late 1930's. In searching for a divorce do you search in her maiden name or her married name?

You can search for divorces on the link I posted....if before 1937 in married name normally

If she didn't marry until 1965 doesn't sound like she divorced in the 30s

it sounds as though they might have waited until a previous partner died.


Even in the 1930s, divorce was not easy to get ..................... basically one partner had to be found "in flagrante delicto" with a member of the opposite sex who was not the legally married spouse.

That meant hiring someone to be the "partner"

Renting a hotel room

Hiring a private detective to take photographs of them both entering and leaving the hotel, and providing proof that they were reiistered in the same hotel room AND that they had spent a sufficient period of time together, alone, in that room.

Then there was the hiring of the lawyer .................. and the costs of the court case.


Many people could not afford that .................... and many would not want to go through all that publicity.

My grandmother married in Hants. Moved immediately back to Ireland to have Mum. Grandfather stayed in Hamptshire and eventually moved to and died on Guernsey.

But Gran, subesquentlyt met another man, they lived together and had 1 child, but did not marry until her first husband died, by this time my Uncle was about 7 years old.

Gran took her 2nd husbands name long before they married.

I've been surprised to find a few divorces for working class people in the 1890s and early 1900s.

It appears that solicitors would take a case on the "in forma pauperis" basis. On the cases I found the evidence was incontestible - for instance, a man's wife admitted adultery and the co-respondent also admitted his role.

If the co-respondent had the means to pay the costs then the solicitor for the cuckolded husband would take the case as he would be getting his fee.

Buy a copy of the 1965 marriage cert ..........................find out what it says.

If the marriage wasn't until you were 19, it's more likely that no divorce took place, and they waited for previous spouse(s) to die...................

When were their first marriages?

Find them......................then look for deaths of spouses, before making other assumptions

I know that at least one spouse was still alive

You have been advised what steps you can take.............

Did you take note of the info given about the availability of records?