Genealogy Chat

In the 1970's how would you claim a pension in your husband's name if you were not married? Could you get away without producing any documents apart from "your husband's" death certificate? Would a claim that you had been married for 50 years be enough?

Regards

Gary

Proof of marriage would have been needed the same rule applies now.

I don't think proof of marriage would have been needed as I know for certain that my mother-in-law got a pension (in her "married" name) after her "husband" died even though they were never actually married. This was in the 1960's up until her death in 2002.

Kath. x

When dad died in 1975 Mum had to send her birth cert and marriage cert and Dads death cert when applying for her widows pension AND they had to be the originals not copies

The position I have is my grandparents were not married, but my grandmother had a widow's pension. My grandfather died in 1970 and my grandmother in 1979. It was just prior to her death that she informed my mother she was not married to my grandfather. At the time she did not tell us, maybe she did not know, that her original husband was still living and he had re-married describing himself as a widower. All very confusing.

Gary

Shirley - I'm inclined to believe those rules abt producing original certificates were really just for administrative convenience. Just because you didn't produce some cert didn't mean the event didn't happen. When OAPs were introduced in 1908 for 70+ y olds, only a minority would have been able to qualify for a b.cert, let alone produce one. In the Northwest Territories, incomplete records date from 1925. Even closer to home, until 2006, it was possible to contract a so-called irregular marriage in Scotland. In the 1920s, 15% of marrs there were "irregular". It was an offence, punishable by a fine up to 40s, not to rego such a marr. However, failure to rego the marr would not invalidate it.