Genealogy Chat

Oooh Merry! I cant believe that! After all our shuffling around and asking Vicars and what-not - there IS a list of Annulments! Whoopee! Bet it isnt searchable though. I have not read the News of the World since 1972, when I parted company with the peasant who had been brought up on it! OC

Thanks Merry - for those who may be interested - I applied abvout 2 yrs ago for a copy - no info really - just the fulll names of the couple - no grounds mentioned - however I was fortunate - when I rang I spoke to the man who had looked it up and he recalled the grounds - these are listed on the Decree Nisi and I do not believe one can get a copy of that. But that copy cost me over £20 - cannot recall the exact figure - would only send for if you wish confirmation of a divorce as I am chasing at the moment - otherwise it is a lot of money for little info. Ann

Oops forgot to say....there is a charge for the decree absolute (and it may not tell you a great deal - but something!) There are rather a lot of websites. Suggest you Google part of the address I gave you! Merry

You can get a copy of the decree absolute: 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. 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 CRONE!!!!! I can't believe it says above they do the Annulments as well!!!!!!! Off to find out about gran's bigamy with the army officer again!! LOL Merry

OMG - don't tell me she could be in the News of the World! The disgrace of it - worse than divorce!

If you find it Merry I would be grateful - nothing in Hampshire Chronicle for those years and canot get into Portsmouth News. Ann

Found the link, but it doesn't quite go up far enough! http://www.uk.olivesoftware(.)com/ (remove brackets) So, it's back to the News of the World (which Crone obviously reads!!) Merry

News of the World always reported Divorces and gave all the juicy details, well into the 1970s. OC

Blimey! Yes, The Times is not good for gossip columns in those days, but gives you a date to go on for the more scandalous press! There was a thread on here about ''other'' national newsaper stuff online, but I can't find it. I thought I'd saved it to favourites. Drat! Still looking! Merry

So flabber was my gasted I forgot to say thank you to Merry!.. Wonder if it was reported in Portsmouth papers - must have been then she took up new identity. We have always accused her of committing bigamy - beginning to look as if she didn't.

Merry - I am flabbergasted - now how do I tell my husband's cousin her granny was a bit of a flyer to put it mildly!. It looks like the right one but will not know unless apply for it and if that is the name of the co-respondent - that is NOT the name of the man she married in Feb 1904 giving birth to a son in JUly 1904! She also gave birth to a son in USA - stating on various returns he was her nephew/lodger and on his birth cert - she has down she is married to her child's father - all lies. So that is 4 men we know of so far! She is as bad as my husband's maternal g./father - he just upped sticks, moved and married - 3 times - never bothered with divorce. Strange thing is that both these persons came from very good backgrounds and in the g.fathers case - his father disowned him completely after he abandoned his first wife and daddy looked after her!

Ah well, its all sounding as if she was the guilty party. Sadly, she would not have stood a cat in hell's chance of getting custody of her son in those days, nor even of seeing him. I believe it was customary in those days to tell the child his mother had died, rather than admit there had been a divorce. The good old days, eh? OC

OC - that is the best laugh I have had all day - sorry you had heartache but when I read it I laughed out loud. You should have paid extra for a special licence - it was worth it - mind you after nearly 30 yrs I am still waiting for him to pay me back and for the minister's fee!!!!!

Ann - LOL Actually, I should have listened to the Vicar...I finished up getting divorced from number two, as well. (Vicar went to prison for his peculiar behaviour in public loos..so much for religious principles) OC

OC - interessting info coming through - looks like ministers 'do their own thing'. In 1978 - we applied (both anglican and innocent parties) to Methodist Church who informed us that we would have to wait at least 6 months for a decision and even then it was not certain - United Reform church married us by special licence in my own home - so knickers to all of them!!!!!!!!!

I seem to remember that the Methodist Church would remarry you if you were the 'innocent' party. When I remarried in early 1970s, the local Anglican Vicar would not marry us, even though we were both 'innocent parties'. OC

Nell the Methodist church must have been more liberal then - and even today the Anglican church will not remarry - or very rarely depending on the vicar. Probabaly saying did not get on with the vicar covered the real reason of not marrying in the anglican church.

I was only talking this evening with a friend about my parents-in-law. After they died, I found out my father-in-law had been married before. They were married in 1949 in the methodist church - the marriage cert clearly states that he was previously married and gives former wife's details as well as the fact that they were divorced. M-i-l always told me they'd married in the methodist church because she didn't get on with the C of E vicar. nell

She was a little madam - her g.dau has been trying for nearly 30 years to find out which sister her g.mother was! With this last piece of evidence we know. She changed her names - both christian and surnames many times over the years - her second husband and she split up in Canada/USA. She only told her family her real surname before she died but gave her sister's name and details! Why would the Methodist church have married him?

As far as I can remember, a woman had to have pretty strong reasons for a divorce to be granted - I think seven years desertion was one reason. Unnatural sexual practices (LOL), insanity etc, but NOT adultery. The Decree Nisi usually gives the reasons but I dont know that you can get hold of this. But in 1904, divorce was still very rare and was almost always reported graphically in the lower type of newspaper! As for her giving a false name at remarriage and stating she was a spinster - there was a great deal of social stigma attached to a divorced woman and she may have 'forgotten' to tell her new husband that she was divorced. OC