General Chat

Alan - let me tell you a story.
My great grandmother Agnes was born in 1879 in a village in Suffolk - where her family had lived for generations.
Her surname was Baggott - in the 1881 census, there were only 62 'Baggotts' in Suffolk - and they were probably all related.

In 1899, Agnes got pregnant and had a baby - in Grimsby. She wasn't married.
I then found her in the 1901 census - in Bournemouth, working in a hotel!
Agnes's daughter Maud is in Suffolk, with Agnes's parents. Maud died aged 9..

Whilst working in this hotel, Agnes meets a young man, Arthur, also working in the hotel.
He'd moved there from London, where he used to work as a waiter for the 'Army & Navy' club
Why did he leave a job in a prestigious club, to work in an (admittedly quite good) hotel in Bournemouth?
He'd left a wife in London. Not only that - he'd left her in an asylum.
At the time, even if you could afford it - you couldn't divorce a spouse who was in an asylum.

Agnes and Arthur then moved, together, to Southampton, where Agnes used Arthur's surname.
Their first child was born in 1903, closely followed by a second child (my gran) in 1904.
They went on to have 6 more children, all bearing Arthur's surname, and with him registered as their father.

Move on a few years - my gran wants to marry a widower. Agnes is against this, as she calls him 'used goods'.

So, gran has to wait until she's 21, in 1925, and won't need her parent's permission, to marry grandad

Arthur died in 1938. Agnes died in 1947.
Upon going through her mothers' effects, gran finds her parents marriage certificate.
They married in 1921, just after Arthur's first wife, Mary died.
Mary had left the asylum, and had been living with her parents - ironically, in Hampshire - at least since 1911.
Gran knew nothing about her parent's late marriage, and was furious at her mother's hypocrisy!

Gran never knew the details, just that her parents married after having 8 of their 9 children.
The ninth child was born a couple of months after the wedding.

OH's great grandfather lived as man & wife ( according to census) for over 20 years until his legal wife died and then they married. Same time period as the OP.
Took me ages to to find the 1st wife dying so much later.

Names, I think your scenario 21:19 could be a possibility as divorce was very expensive back then. Alan needs to provide a bit more info if he would like some help :-)

I agree about the GRO records. Regardless of what happened to parish records regular returns would have been made to GRO :-)

LondonBelle! ( don’t want to steal from her :-D)


I’m sure I had read somewhere of West Country records being destroyed in a war time bombing but can’t find it anywhere. But it would have been parish records and these marriages & deaths should have gone to the GRO.

Or maybe the second marriage wasn't in Bristol - or maybe . . . . . . .
So many possibilities!

Try searching marriages on FreeBMD, entering only your grandfather's name, but no place or bride's name. Being too specific often doesn't help.

Or tell us his name and his wives' names, as Nameslessone [ No, sorry - it was LondonBelle] says, and we'll have a look.

It is possible that the first wife didn’t die in this period and that there was a divorce OR he and the ‘2nd’ wife weren’t actually married.

If you provide your grandfather's name and date of birth together with those for his wives that would help :-)

Alan, I would doubt very much that the records would have been destroyed by fire.

If you would like to provide some more information we could take a look for you :-)

Corrected message.
I am finding no records of my grandfathers first wife death and no records of his marriage to his second wife, the dates in question lie between 1905-1918 in Bristol.
Could it be that the records were destroyed in a fire?

I am finding no records of my grandfathers first wife and no records of his marriage to his second wife, the dates in question lie between 1905-1918 in Bristol.
Could it be that the records were destroyed in a fire?