Marriage & Bigamy

[PurpleOwl333]

I have "all sorts" in my tree.  Lots of illegitimate births - it was almost compulsory

I've a bigamy where the man knew his wife was still alive - she turned up in court to prove it.

Another bigamy where they separated (through the courts on grounds of cruelty) and the wife reinvented herself as a WW1 widow to marry "a proper catch, an RAF top officer and Wing Commander" - but he got suspicious and found her husband was still alive, so he got the divorce courts to nullify their wedding.

I've one I suspect, where an illegitimate lad married in his own village under his birth name - then he and his wife appear in different counties, she remarried under her birth name and he married his half-brother's wife's sister using his "adopted name" of his half-brother (two brothers married two sisters, although years apart/not a double wedding).  Nobody suspected a thing, I'm probably the first to discover this... and it's something I'd need to spend more time on "proving".

My gt-grandmother just started using her bf's surname - even though they'd both been widowed long before they met.  They were certainly at the same address as head/lodger for 20 years in the censuses before being referred to in the newspapers (eviction case) where her widowed name was given and "also known as Mrs ...." the lodger's surname.

I've always been surprised that there is no "look up" list of divorces easily available to the public.  You'd just need the names/dates at its most basic.... to give you a clue.

Wow I'm not sure I'd have been able to get my head around all the goings on in your tree and work it through, to be honest!  You've done a great job unraveling and putting the pieces together.

I find it so interesting how the ideas about and importance of marriage changed, in my tree anyway, but I'm guessing more widely within society as a whole, from one generation to the next.  My gr-grandparents who it appears married as she was pregnant, then both remarried with no evidence of a divorce in 1913-1922 era, to my grandma in 1935 and my mother in the 1960's who believed marriage was for life and both put up with very challenging circumstances for over 20 years either to give the kids security or because the didn't believe in divorce however badly they were treated. I chose differently to all of them and felt no stigma divorcing first husband when he was unfaithful. Times and attitudes do indeed change, quite possibly due to the effects we witness growing up.

Initially I felt really uncomfortable discovering that it appeared my gr-grandfather had lied about his father's name on his marriage cert to my gr-grandmother, so much so that I ended up researching every man with his name to compare the signatures on their marriage certs and occupations of their fathers. In the end though there were no other men who had a father with the name and occupation he gave who had a son with his name, so I had to accept the facts as I found them.

Yes, that would be amazing to have a list of divorces available! To know for sure what happened would be really great!

Probably a "Look Up" list of divorces would lead to many elderly members of families having to do some quick thinking when questioned by their younger family historians, not only on their ancestors' accounts, but also on their own!

  Indeed!

[iluleah]

Of course convicts which were transported often married again and for some very quickly even though they were already married with children 'back home'

[PurpleOwl333]

Of course convicts which were transported often married again and for some very quickly even though they were already married with children 'back home'

Interesting, I hadn't even thought about convicts!

[iluleah]

Divorce until recently was too expensive for the majority of people, also generally a male dominated 'event' as in only a male could divorce his wife, not the other way around.

On the 1911 census it states 'years married' of the couple, one set of my great grandparents it says '22yrs' researching back trying to find a marriage for them based on where they lived ( three different counties) over the years I could never find a marriage, what I 'thought' I found was an earlier census mistake on her given name, but then found a marriage...so great grand dad was married  to someone else and 'played away', 1st wife returned to her home county and great grandma moved in along with new baby and they continued to have children. It was only when I was looking at the parish records for their child's marriages I came across their own marriage 24yrs AFTER they claimed they were already married and 2 months after his first wife died.

[PurpleOwl333]

Divorce until recently was too expensive for the majority of people, also generally a male dominated 'event' as in only a male could divorce his wife, not the other way around.

Yes, from an economic perspective it's easy to understand why many didn't officially divorce. I've been trying to find my own parent's divorce papers and was shocked to see on the gov website https://www.gov.uk/divorce/file-for-divorce that it now costs £550 to start the application for a divorce! 

On the 1911 census it states 'years married' of the couple, one set of my great grandparents it says '22yrs' researching back trying to find a marriage for them based on where they lived ( three different counties) over the years I could never find a marriage, what I 'thought' I found was an earlier census mistake on her given name, but then found a marriage...so great grand dad was married  to someone else and 'played away', 1st wife returned to her home county and great grandma moved in along with new baby and they continued to have children. It was only when I was looking at the parish records for their child's marriages I came across their own marriage 24yrs AFTER they claimed they were already married and 2 months after his first wife died.

Wow, good detective skills you have! Isn't it interesting how we can understand so much more about our ancestors based on the decisions they made to marry or not and even when.  It's interesting also to read Judge's remarks on court cases concerning bigamy such as this one https://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/viewarticle?id=bl%2f0000250%2f19200924%2f136 where the judge describes the lady concerned as "Living a life of most vicious immorality," and this was in the Roaring or Golden Age 1920's!  I was never interested in history at school, but I have to say researching my family tree has me quite hooked on it!

[iluleah]

Yes, from an economic perspective it's easy to understand why many didn't officially divorce. I've been trying to find my own parent's divorce papers and was shocked to see on the gov website https://www.gov.uk/divorce/file-for-divorce that it now costs £550 to start the application for a divorce! 

£550 is VERY cheap... 18 yrs ago my legal/court costs were £ 27,000 'joint' costs £52,000 and no we were not millionaires and no there was no minor children and the judge awarded him my legal costs to pay and it took me 10 years of continually returning to court to get it paid

I was never interested in history at school, but I have to say researching my family tree has me quite hooked on it!

Snap! If they had taught genealogy I would have loved it and learned so much about history and it is something I used when teaching teenagers not interested in learning facts and dates in history ( and they all passed their history GCSEs)

[PurpleOwl333]

  Wow ... Isn't it just insane the costs involved in doing things legally!

Yes, from an economic perspective it's easy to understand why many didn't officially divorce. I've been trying to find my own parent's divorce papers and was shocked to see on the gov website https://www.gov.uk/divorce/file-for-divorce that it now costs £550 to start the application for a divorce! 

£550 is VERY cheap... 18 yrs ago my legal/court costs were £ 27,000 'joint' costs £52,000 and no we were not millionaires and no there was no minor children and the judge awarded him my legal costs to pay and it took me 10 years of continually returning to court to get it paid

[ThrelfallYorky]

Good job I'm happily hitched still - never would be able to afford to split! (And we'd fight for custody of the cats!)

[iluleah]

Good job I'm happily hitched still - never would be able to afford to split! (And we'd fight for custody of the cats!)

  He never mentioned the cat, just wanted my competition winning dogs ( as well as his own) DJ wasn't impressed about that said no and he still tried to steal them!