Genealogy Chat

Just a quick thank you to all who helped with this one - especially the address for looking up divorce record information.

Apologies for not posting this earlier but my internet connection has been down.

Many thanks
Michelle

What was his name?

Hi Michelle

You could try this they are most helpful

Her Majesty's Courts Service
Pricipal Registry of
The Family Division
Decree Absolute Searches
Room 203
First Avenue House
42-49 High Holborn
London
WC1V 6NP

Telephone 020 7947 7016/7017

www.hmcourts-service.gsi.gov.uk

Thanks Peter and Alison for your help. I don't suppose either of you know whether divorce records are available anywhere to view? I am now intrigued as to whether my grandfather had only just obtained his divorce or whether he'd been divorced for some time, but he and my nan only found the means to marry much later. It throws up so many questions for me and I would love to know a bit more about the first marriage, and potential reasons for the great period of time that passed from their first child being born in 1932 and their eventual marriage in 1964!

Had this one with my Grandad. He married a lady who, when they moved couldn't settle. One day he came home from work and found her gone. He tried to find her lost of different ways and couldn't, sometime later he met my Gran and they had to wait 7 years for the first marriage to be annuled, as they had had no contact with her. So he was free to marry.

Michelle,

In the post-war period divorce was not available on demand; it may be that your grandfather's first wife chose for many years not to sue for divorce despite the obvious grounds she had. Conversely your grandfather may not have had grounds for divorcing her.

Peter

Apart from being in the RAF in the second world war, my grandad was a painter and decorater. He and my nan had six children, the first being born in 1930, but they never married until 1954 when he was 60 and she was 54, it just seems so odd. Even with him being married previously it seems an incredibly long time to wait to legalise things. I know nothing about pensions but maybe that is the reason, as I can't really understand why they eventually chose to marry - maybe something I shall never discover!

Was your grandad in an occupation where his wife would have been entitled to a pension? I can't see another reason for them to go to the cost of a divorce and legalise it otherwise.

You're welcome :-)

Ok, thank you for that!

It does mean divorced. That is the expression put on a certificate to mean he was divorced.

I have just received my grandparents marriage certificate which states that my grandmother as spinster but my grandfather as 'marriage previously dissolved' - can anyone help with what that may mean?

Having looked unsuccessfully for their marriage for the past twenty years, I have found it thirty years after I would have expected it to be - my nan being 54 and my grandad 60. I assume their must have been some reason why they waited so long to marry and now after getting the certificate it seems my grandad was previously married, but I don't really know what the 'marriage dissolved' bit means. I can't understand whay it wouldn't say divorced if that what it meant, or widower if his wife has died - does anyone have any ideas?

Many thanks
Michelle