Bigamy & Illegitimacy

[TheWombat]

A relative married in London during WW2.  A child was subsequently born  to the couple.  The marriage was then discovered to be bigamous.  The man was tried, convicted, and served a term of imprisonment.

My questions are:

1. Would the marriage have been annulled by the authorities? If so would the registered marriage record have been deleted or amended?

2. Would the child of the union, whose birth was registered in the normal manner (i.e. two parents married) taking the father's surname, then have its birth record altered to suit the legally changed circumstances?

If any knowledgeable RootsChatters could help me with this conundrum, I would be enormously grateful.

Regards
The Wombat

[aghadowey]

Think the subject of bigamy came up in a post fairly recently. As far as I know the marriage was considered not to have legally existed and therefore did not have to be annulled.
Strangely enough a new neighbour married about 20 years or so ago and then discovered the 'husband' was already married but it's not the sort of thing you can ask many questions about to someone who's been through it.

[Jebber]

Although the marriage  was null and void, I believe the marriage record remains in situ.

The birth registration would remain unchanged, the fact that the parents were not legally married, does not change the father's paternity.

Jebber

[stanmapstone]

See http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,260828.0.html

Stan

[Romilly]

A relative married in London during WW2.  A child was subsequently born  to the couple.  The marriage was then discovered to be bigamous.  The man was tried, convicted, and served a term of imprisonment.
My questions are:
1. Would the marriage have been annulled by the authorities? If so would the registered marriage record have been deleted or amended?
2. Would the child of the union, whose birth was registered in the normal manner (i.e. two parents married) taking the father's surname, then have its birth record altered to suit the legally changed circumstances?
If any knowledgeable RootsChatters could help me with this conundrum, I would be enormously grateful.
Regards
The Wombat

Its a small world Wombat...

My guess is that your queries could be answered by ordering copies of these Certs...but I would also hazard a guess that no alterations were made...

I wonder if anyone else on here has already tried this? (I seem to remember that Halfasheep had a similar issue in his family...?)

Romilly.

[mshrmh]

I'm trying to remember the story Michael Buerk (the former newsreader) tells in his autobiography. His father had a living non-divorced wife when he married MB's mother. IIRC there was something in the book about the register being altered - something a bit "dodgy" perhaps another relative involved - can anyone remember?

[TheWombat]

Firstly, thank you all for your input.

Think the subject of bigamy came up in a post fairly recently. As far as I know the marriage was considered not to have legally existed and therefore did not have to be annulled.

There has been some considerable traffic on the subject it seems, but, mostly appears to relate to personal family stories without actually answering the question.

Although the marriage  was null and void, I believe the marriage record remains in situ.

The birth registration would remain unchanged, the fact that the parents were not legally married, does not change the father's paternity.

Jebber

This, Jebber, agrees with my initial feelings on the subject, but, as usual, the more I thought about it the more doubt was raised.

Its a small world Wombat...

My guess is that your queries could be answered by ordering copies of these Certs...but I would also hazard a guess that no alterations were made...


Romilly.

Always a pleasure to talk to you Romilly.  I do, in fact, have a copy of the relevant certificates and they show that all appears normal. But, as mentioned above, a nagging doubt existed.

This raises a supplementary question;
                                                             if the bigamous partner wishes to remarry (assuming divorce from the partner of the first marriage) would the existing, and unaltered, marriage certificate from the bigamous marriage render the partner liable to any possible legal proceedings (real or imaginary)?   I do hope that makes sense?

Regards
The Wombat