Author Topic: Researching Bigamy  (Read 1910 times)

Offline lynukk

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 54
    • View Profile
Researching Bigamy
« on: Thursday 17 September 15 12:54 BST (UK) »
Looking for information on a bigamous marriage in 1942...My grandmother was still married to my grandfather when she married her second husband in grimsby in 1942.She was found out and was sent to prison for 4 months.Can anyone help whith where to research next...i have found a newspaper report on the marriage but wonderd if there would be an annulment or records of it.
# thanks

Offline Redroger

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 12,680
  • Dad and Fireman at Kings Cross 13.7.1951
    • View Profile
Re: Re: Researching Bigamy
« Reply #1 on: Thursday 17 September 15 13:10 BST (UK) »
Was this a newspaper report on the marriage or on a case resulting from it? If the former then look for case reports afterwards. When you have a report of the case then ask at your local archive; could be Lincolnshire at Lincoln if they have any case papers.
Ayres Brignell Cornwell Harvey Shipp  Stimpson Stubbings (all Cambs) Baumber Baxter Burton Ethards Proctor Stanton (all Lincs) Luffman (all counties)

Offline lynukk

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 54
    • View Profile
Re: Re: Researching Bigamy
« Reply #2 on: Thursday 17 September 15 16:35 BST (UK) »
it was a report of the bigamy case, i have the actual marriage certificate and my grandmother says she was a widow but grandfather didnt die untill 1962

Offline Redroger

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 12,680
  • Dad and Fireman at Kings Cross 13.7.1951
    • View Profile
Re: Re: Researching Bigamy
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday 23 September 15 12:20 BST (UK) »
Lincoln archive next then.
Ayres Brignell Cornwell Harvey Shipp  Stimpson Stubbings (all Cambs) Baumber Baxter Burton Ethards Proctor Stanton (all Lincs) Luffman (all counties)


Offline ThrelfallYorky

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 3,628
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Re: Researching Bigamy
« Reply #4 on: Wednesday 23 September 15 17:21 BST (UK) »
As an early poster said, probably bigamy was far more frequent in late 19th / early 20th Century than we usually think - people were disrupted by Wars, and more movement of labour, and it seems to have been very difficult and expensive to get a legal divorce, so I can really see why many probably thought "Hang it .... I'll move to X, and start all over again" then "Well, no-one here will know I'm married..." then "Bachelor... yes, that's right" and just start all over again.
Or simply - we, researching, cannot find a marriage simply because there is no formal marriage to find, and we try for years to track one down.
Many war-time marriages seem to fail, often because couples married before they'd really had a chance to get to know each other. We'll probably never know the true statistics on this, because it was only the ones who got caught out that we know of.
And "lower class" people probably wouldn't have known how to even set about getting a divorce, even if they'd been free!
Families even when I was young often felt there was a disgrace in having had a divorce in the family, even where the family member was not in any way at fault. It was almost as if they felt it might contaminate them all! Whispered conversations, all the way.
- It's quite fascinating, isn't it?
Threlfall (Southport), Isherwood (lancs & Canada), Newbould + Topliss(Derby), Keating & Cummins (Ireland + lancs), Fisher, Strong& Casson (all Cumberland) & Downie & Bowie, Linlithgow area Scotland . Also interested in Leigh& Burrows,(Lancashire) Griffiths (Shropshire & lancs), Leaver (Lancs/Yorks) & Anderson(Cumberland and very elusive)

Offline StanleysChesterton

  • RootsChat Veteran
  • *****
  • Posts: 711
  • My G-grandmother on right, 1955
    • View Profile
Re: Re: Researching Bigamy
« Reply #5 on: Wednesday 23 September 15 19:16 BST (UK) »
You could re-marry, legitimately, if you believed the person had died more than 7 years before and you'd made proper efforts to find them.  But that was flawed too.

I've two lots of bigamy in my close tree to date: Both were bigamists. 

The first one simply lied about how long since he'd heard from his wife (which was a lie as he'd seen her and knew she was still alive).  That was bare-faced lying.

The other one was just a chancer and presented themselves as a "widow", 8 years after a separation (by the courts) - and it all fell apart when her new husband decided he wanted to get out of the marriage, so he had the "dead" husband investigated and got the ex-husband's sister/brother-in-law into court who said they'd had letters from him until the year before.  He had gone abroad and so I suspect the wife had probably not been receiving child maintenance for many years.  But she misrepresented herself to her new beau by saying she was a widow.

Bizarrely, in the first case above, he was let off as the judge decided that somebody was lying and couldn't work out which one, so opted to give the bigamist the benefit of the doubt. 

In the second case, the marriage was immediately annulled - the strength of being able to produce, in court, the sister of the alleged dead husband was sufficient evidence that he was still alive.
Related to: Lots of people!
:)
Mostly Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, some Kent and Dorset.
 
Elizabeth Long/Elizabeth Wilson/Elizabeth Long Wilson, b 1889 Caxton - where are you?
- -
Seeking: death year/location of Albert Edward Morgan, born Cambridge 1885/86 to Hannah & Edward Morgan of 33 Cambridge Place.
WW1 soldier, service number 8624, 2nd battalion, Highland Light Infantry.

Offline dawnsh

  • Global Moderator
  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • ********
  • Posts: 15,543
    • View Profile
Re: Researching Bigamy
« Reply #6 on: Wednesday 23 September 15 19:42 BST (UK) »
You're lucky you have the subsequent marriage certificate.

If bigamy was discovered and reported by the Law Courts to the General Register Office, the Registrar General could place a block on the entry and applications for copies of the bigamous entry can be refused. The marriage took place so won't be removed from the registers or indexes but won't be valid.

The Law Courts could also issue an annulment due to Bigamy, in which case you can ask HMCTS for a search for an annulment but it will cost you the £65 search fee they charge for decree absolute searches.
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Sherry-Paddington & Marylebone,
Longhurst-Ealing & Capel, Abinger, Ewhurst & Ockley,
Chandler-Chelsea

Offline ThrelfallYorky

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 3,628
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Researching Bigamy
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 24 September 15 11:35 BST (UK) »
Wow! That sounds a bit steep. But, if you had one,(a bigamist, I mean) could almost be worth it.
Threlfall (Southport), Isherwood (lancs & Canada), Newbould + Topliss(Derby), Keating & Cummins (Ireland + lancs), Fisher, Strong& Casson (all Cumberland) & Downie & Bowie, Linlithgow area Scotland . Also interested in Leigh& Burrows,(Lancashire) Griffiths (Shropshire & lancs), Leaver (Lancs/Yorks) & Anderson(Cumberland and very elusive)