Genealogy Chat

Hi Have a horrible feeling that my G G Grandmother was a bigamist. Are there any indexes/records that can be looked at to see if see actually divorced husband number two before marrying husband number three, and then four. Between 1907 and 1914 Thanks for any advice S

Hello Sarah There's a little Search box, click Back to get to it, above, I found over 15 entries with lots of info. might be useful for you. Good Luck Babz:-)

Have you got husbands three and four marriage certificates ? It should say on there what her previous names were if she got divorced. But i havent had any divorcees, so im sure someone will correct me found this on a google search http://www.exploregenealogy(.)co(.)uk/MarriageCertificateProblems.html remove brackets says that an index of all decrees absolute since 1857 is kept by the National Divorce Records. You'll need the full forenames of both parties before approaching them, and for a fee they'll conduct a 10-year search. They'll be able to tell you where the divorce took place, and from there you can contact the court directly for a copy of the decree absolute.

Thanks both I've got all four marriage certificates of my g g grandmother Rhoda Bullen Certificate number two when she marries Francis Jones has her 'condition' as being the divorced wife of Edward Churchill-Sly I assumed she divorced Francis Jones before she married for the third time. I had marriage certificate number three today which has her 'conditon' as being a widow. But Francis Jones didn't die as I'm in contact with his great grandson. His family thought that he was married to his second wife and in appears that they never ever got married but lived a life of 'married' bliss with their children. So lying about being a widow and Francis Jones never telling anyone that he wasn't married to the woman everyone thought was his wife, is making me think that Rhoda and Francis never divorced. She remarried bigamously and Francis just didn't bother. Do you think I might be on the right track Cheers S

Sounds like you are to me, but I suppose the only for you to be 100% sure is to pay for a search at the national divorce records. I do know that it was very expensive to get a divorce back then, and many people had bigamous relationships.

I found this for you might be helpful if you decide you want to do the search http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/Leaflets/ri2289.htm

When you remarry, if you declare you are divorced, you have to show the papers to the Registrar. So - the first divorce took place but I doubt if the second did! You are not alone, bigamy was rife - I have four cases at least, in my tree. OC

Thanks Willow, I'm gonna try and get that search done. Old Crone - I know when I remarried, I had to show my decree absolute etc to the Registrar. That's one of the things that's making me doubt the second divorce, no divorce doumentation so just pretend to be a widow instead. Thanks both Your stars