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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Northumberland => Topic started by: Tickettyboo on Saturday 30 April 22 18:15 BST (UK)

Title: Divorce Cause Books
Post by: Tickettyboo on Saturday 30 April 22 18:15 BST (UK)
I am attempting to find a date of a divorce in the early 1940s, Newcastle. Have firkled through old newspapers, but divorce was a fairly common occurrence at this time and very few are reported with names (though I can see entries that say a couple of hundred were granted on a particular day!)

TWAS user guides say they have 'divorce cause books 1926-1950' for Newcastle County Court and District Registry.

I have no experience of these, and suspect that as they were a legal thing they would be in the same general format from county to county but wondered if anyone can tell me if its likely that names of the parties being divorced and dates of grant of decrees nisi and absolute would be available in them?

NB I am not expecting these to give me the nitty gritty of who did what, when - and with whom :-) I just want to confirm that the divorce did take place and when the decree absolute would have been granted.

thanks
Boo
Title: Re: Divorce Cause Books
Post by: Tickettyboo on Tuesday 03 May 22 16:13 BST (UK)
Durham Record Office has 'some' (1947-1950) divorce cause books and their archivist kindly told me that those they hold are:
an administrative record showing the names of parties, sometimes including a third party (the “correspondent”), the names of solicitors involved, the stages of the process, with dates, and the fees paid
They seem to think these would be mainly divorces in Durham, (not the County Borough areas e.g. Sunderland, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Darlington etc ). Pages would be available via the Quick Search service (charge £5, presumably per page if the record runs to more than 1 page)

If it doesn't involve remortgaging the house (possible at TWAS), I'll see what TWAS quote to see if the record I am interested in is in their holdings.

Boo

Title: Re: Divorce Cause Books
Post by: lydiaann on Wednesday 04 May 22 09:29 BST (UK)
Boo:  'Firkled'?? :o  What a fabulous word, is it Northumbrian? Welsh? Martian?  Whatever, I've never heard it before and I shall adopt it immediately!

lydiaann
Title: Re: Divorce Cause Books
Post by: Tickettyboo on Wednesday 04 May 22 10:24 BST (UK)
I've been asked this before, (its a word I've used all my life and I always thought it was common, but obviously its not) my interpretation is here:
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=800305.msg6578302#msg6578302

Boo
Title: Re: Divorce Cause Books - update
Post by: Tickettyboo on Wednesday 11 May 22 10:21 BST (UK)
As the TWAS catalogue is 'still' offline, I emailed and asked for the details of the catalogue entry for these Divorce Cause Books. Sadly, though the user guide says 1926-1950 that turns out to be a range from the earliest to the most recent that are held by them, its not a full run.

They sound really useful though if anyone is interested in the available ones, so this is the catalogue listing. NB I am told that there are access restrictions for the two later volumes (1947-1950) so they can't be viewed.

CC.NC/5/1-4         Newcastle District Registry of the High Court - Divorce Cause Books
Information given: spouse petitioning and grounds, names and (from 1928) addresses of parties, including co-respondent, date and nature of each action in cause. Dates are of first proceeding in each case. Indexed

Sampled prior to deposit, retaining one year in 10 plus final volume

CC.NC/5/1         24 April 1926 - 7 October 1932 (1 volume)
CC.NC/5/2         3 February 1937 - 26 August 1939 (no. 3) (1 volume)
CC.NC/5/3         23 May - 1 August 1947 (no. 9) (1 volume)
CC.NC/5/4         10 November - 30 December 1950
                  volume abandoned. Does not give addresses (1 volume)

So sad that the others were (presumably) destroyed.

Boo