RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: LizzieW on Sunday 11 May 08 23:45 BST (UK)
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Does anyone know where I would find details of divorces from 1940s and 50s?
Lizzie
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I found divorce records at the National Archives for 1928.
I don't know what date they go to but I used this link:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search/quick_search.aspx
This search option gives better results and covers far more entries - only found this thanks to a Rootschatter ;D.
Good luck
Di
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I agree with Di that this is a wonderful resource, which I too discovered only recently thanks to a fellow Rootschatter.
The easiest way to search for divorces is to use this page:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/search.asp
entering the name you are interested in in the "Word or phrase" box and J77 in the "Department or Series Code" box (plus any dates if you want to limit the search).
Anna
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Thank you Di and Anna. Unfortunately the National Archives records only appear to go as far as 1935 when I just checked. Perhaps I'll have to wait another few years or so to find out anything.
Although I did read somewhere on Rootschat that although 1911 census is not yet available, a Rootschatters divorce details were available to all to see and they were only about 4-5 years old. Perhaps I should check newspapers.
Lizzie
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Hi Lizzie
I seem to recall that, for a while, divorce details were available at the National Archives upto 2000, but this facility was then closed, think this was on a NA's newsletter, can't find it at the mo, perhaps there were objections :-\
Susan
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Thanks Sue. I doubt there are many people alive now, who divorced in the 1940s/50s. I'm trying to find out about my aunt's divorce and she was born in 1908 and died in 1990.
Lizzie
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Hi Lizzie,
An old thread, I know, but did you ever find any divorce records from the time? I am looking for the divorce of my great-aunt in the 1940's/1950s and I don't know where to go for information.
Thanks
Matt
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Hi Matt
I didn't find out anything, to be honest I put it on the back burner after a general search. I do remember that my aunt's husband went to prison, which was kept from me as a child, as was the divorce, although my cousins knew, their parents obviously not so sensitive about the issue as my parents (or probably my mother was, even though my aunt was my father's sister).
I suppose if I did a search of the newspapers of the 1940s for the appropriate town, I might find out why my aunt's husband went to prison and that would give me a date to start searching for a divorce.
Lizzie