Genealogy Chat

Nudge for David Merry

My grandmother married a bigamist before she married my grandfather, I have the certificates for both marriages and on the one to my grandfather it shows her as a spinster so i guess the marriage was annulled,thanks for that,,i will definalty be writing,,

The first marriage is the legal one. The man then went on to marry again, thus committing bigamy by contracting a marriage when he was not free to do so. Therefore, the second marriage is the invalid one. Once he got a divorce from his first wife, he would then be free to contract another marriage with whomsoever he chose and so could re-marry the second woman. If he didn't re-marry her, then he wouldn't be married to her in any shape or form, as the first time he'd got hitched to her it was invalid and not recognized in law. Jack

Thanks Merry- your certainly a deep mine for info- what a great help you are.

If someone applied for a divorce and then it became apparent that the marriage had actually been bigamous, they would not be able to get the divorce.....but, they could apply for a declaration of nullity (otherwise called an annulment). Once the declaration had been granted, the innocent party would be free to marry again and to state their name and marital condition as they were before the bigamous marriage took place. The guilty party would not be able to marry again until after they had extracted themselves from the marriage that was current when the bigamous marriage took place! I'm not sure if this answers your Q, Meercat!? Merry

Merry Could you be a dear and change the title of this thread to Bigamy and Annulments, so I can find it in my encyclopadia of saved threads! OC

Mmmmmmmmmmm interesting. I think i might have a bigamous marriage from the mid 1860's,neither partner from the first marriage died but both remarried within three years. Subsequent census returns for the two individuals show they both appear to 'doctor' the year and place of birth each time,but the two new family groups are certainly the same,the subsequent children are recorded consistently for the following four census returns. Glen

I don't think a lot of mine bothered with marriage......so there'd be no bigamy !!! Jean

Brilliant Merry - I have already commented on the other thread. OC

Thanks for that Merry. I have a likely bigamous marriage in my tree, so that address will probably come in very handy. Cheers. Dianne xx

thats very useful Merry thanks

Before either party involved in a bigamous marriage could remarry, they had to apply for a ''declaration of nullity'' (ie have a court decide that they were indeed correct that the marriage had been bigamous). Obviously any guilty party might have to do more than this to free themselves for another marriage, but that's not the issue here! I was just helping someone with getting info on their rellies divorce and looked up the address for getting copies of the decree absolute......and I saw this: ''The Principal Registry of the Family Division (PRFD) also has responsibility for maintaining the index of all Decrees Absolute (Divorce and Annulments) in England and Wales.'' Note the word ANNULMENTS in there!! I guess they therefore have declarations of nullity, which is, in effect, the same thing!! I had previously not been able to establish where (if anywhere) these records were held! Here's the address should anyone need it: The Court Service Principal Registry of the Family Division Decree Absolute Searches Room 2.03 First Avenue House 42-49 High Holborn London WC1V 6NP 020 7947 7016 or 7017 Happy Hunting! Merry

below in a mo......