London divorce record

[beniamino]

I am at a loss trying to find a divorce record. I know the names of the couple, that the divorce happened between 1955 and 1963, and I have the address where they lived in London before the divorce. I do not know which court the divorce happened at. I asked the Central Family Court to search for the record (paying £65 as described here: https://www.gov.uk/copy-decree-absolute-final-order). They were unable to find the record. I asked for a re-search, which produced the same result.

I am at a loss about how to proceed. One idea would be to ask the court nearest their address to conduct a search. However, I can't work out which courts existed in 1960, or which courts heard divorce cases. Asking many courts to conduct a search would also be very expensive (£45 a go).

I would be grateful for any ideas about how I might proceed.

[rosie99]

From TNA website

The survival rate of divorce case files is:
1858-1927: almost 100%
1928-1937: 80%
After 1937: less than 0.2%
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/divorces/

[KGarrad]

Are you absolutely sure that the divorce happened?
Or are you assuming that a divorce happened?

There are very few divorce case notes in existence for divorces happening after 1937.
If you do find the Decree Absolute, it will give very little information; it's just an A4 piece of paper

Did you ask the Central Family Court to search for variants of the names?
My grandfather's divorce is indexed under an incorrect spelling! Took a while to find.

[beniamino]

I only need the document, not any further information. I can't be absolutely sure the divorce took place, but a later marriage certificate says "Previous marriage dissolved" so it seems likely that it did. I did ask them to search for all name variants that I can think of.

[rosie99]

There is a good chance that it has not survived.  As KG said the absolute says very little, just names & date - no reason.

They would probably have produced the absolute when they married hence the 'previous marriage dissolved' comment