General Chat

I have received a record of an application for divorce from the National Archive digital service. However I have no experience with divorce in the family, so far we've all managed to stick together or outlive the other half.

The divorce was applied for in 1929 hence its inclusion in the records of the National Archive.
What puzzels me is there is nothing beyond the initial application.
The front cover of the papers has a date stamp on it against the Petition filed but not againt the rest of the list under the heading Court Minutes as so:

In the High Court of Justice
probate divorce and admiralty division
(Divorce)

Name of Petitioner
v
Name of Respondant

Court Minutes

COURT MINUTES
Petition filed Mar 1929 (stamped)
Cause set down
Decree Nisi
Final Decree

Does anyone know any more about divorce papers than me (which would not be difficult) or can anyone answer if it looks like the divorce was applied for and not followed through on due to the finianial recession later in the year which caused massive problems in the family.

I received my g grandparents' divorce papers from 1907 some time ago from the NA. When you made your application did it tell you that there would be only one page?

I seem to remember that I was told on the application that there would be in excess of 30 pages; in fact there were 32 and it cost me £17.

May I ask how much you paid for this single page?

I am wondering if there has been a glitch. If not, I expect what you have surmised about financial difficulties may have been the cause of the divorce not being finalised.

Birdi

Looks like you have the petition - not the decree nisi/absolute.
Good grief, Birdi - 30 pages!!
I think mine is about 6 - mind you, there was no contest.

Maggie - my g grandparents divorce papers made my hair stand on end!

I had always had an affection for William Bird until I read what a Baa Lamb he'd been towards his wife after only a few months of marriage. He hit her so hard one day that the baby she had the following day died, though whether that was the result of his actions we shall never know as neither the baby's birth or death were recorded.

The couple had 11 children altogether, not including the one that was stillborn. When she could stand no more after 28 years of bullying she filed for divorce and won her case.

Birdi

Birdi

It cost me £8.50 and I got it through their new digital service so they scan the whole of the file within 24hrs and upload to to a server then email you the link to download it. With the cover it came to 10 pages in total scanned as 7 images.

If anyone is interested the email formats are below

Confirmation
CATALOGUE REF.: J 77/
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION YOU SUPPLIED: Customer requested item reference J 77/
SERVICE TYPE: Gold service (24 hours)
SERVICE DESCRIPTION: Includes up to ten images from the same document delivered by email within 24 hours
DELIVERY TIME: 16 February 2010 17:00
PRICE: £8.50

Order completed
Dear Customer

This is a system generated email – please do not reply.

Your Digital express order, number 33341 / 40622 has been completed.

Please note that there are only 7 images in your document request.

You can access your images from our download page http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/filestore/etc (please allow 15 minutes from the time this email was sent)

The images will remain available for download for seven days, and will then be deleted. We recommend that you save the images to your computer as soon as you have downloaded them.

Frances - it does look like that is all that's available then.

I didn't realise that over 30 pages was unusual but my g grandfather contested the divorce. There were several pages detailing the abuse my g grandmother suffered at his hands including him throwing her out into the street whilst she was dressed in only a nightgown.

I have a photo of him and he looks like a very mild mannered gent!

Birdi