Genealogy Chat

Greetings
I am making inquiries in to an old family member and found he had a conviction for being married twice. I have both marriage certificates for the member, but following inquiries have found both opposing parties remarried many years later.

I take it that a divorce must have been granted somewhere in England, and wonder if anyone has any idea how I could check out whether that occurred, or was it a matter of bigamy again. What was the practice in the late 1800's to early 1900's.
Cheers
Warwick

national archive uk,

there are a number of divorce records that are listed up till about 1939ish,,,,,,,but is incomplete of all that was ever granted,the full divorce record can be bought via the site,,,,,,,the search just gives names,year and respondant/co- repondant. (if any) and year.

just put divorce in the search box.

Also bear in mind that most people could not afford to divorce at that time. They might just have gone ahead and married again.

Many thanks for your thoughts.
Warwick

There are detailed divorce records on ancestry from 1858- 1911

Many thanks for that.
Cheers
Warwick

If he second marriage occured while the first wife was still alive then it would have been illegal-not valid-so would a divorce have been needed ?

The second 'marriage' was not valid, so no divorce would have been necessary

Hi
Thanks for the info. It seems that the second marriage is the important marriage and he in fact married the 2nd lady again about 1967. That being the case the first marriage would have to be taken from the records. It seems the 1st lady also remarried in 1940 so she would have done something anyway.
Cheers

Your original post gave an entirely false picture with regard to time-scale.

The mid -20th century was a much different era, and divorce was easier to obtain

The first marriage would NOT have been expunged from the records, as it was the LEGAL one, regardless of whether the man eventually made a legal contract with the woman with whom he committed bigamy

So what has late 1800s to early 1900s got to do with these people who married in the 1960s?

I only mentioned what was on ancestry because of the dates you gave....you are unlikey to find any record of divorce after 1937

The following link will tell you about what Divorce records survive and how to search for Decrees nisi and absolute where the case files have been destroyed

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

Many thanks for the help. I don't need anything after the mid 30's - I think the UK National Archives are what i am looking for.
Many thanks everyone for the help.
Cheers