Genealogy Chat

Hi, can anyone tell me how you go about finding out if someone has been divorced? There is often a heading saying "Marriages/ Divorces" on genealogical sites, but when I have searched no divorces ever come up. I know my father divorced and married again, but even when I search under his name only the two marriage certificates come up.

Very few recent divorce files have survived - and almost none online. This is taken from the National Archives website:-

The survival rate of divorce case files is:
1858-1927: almost 100%
1928-1937: 80%
After 1937 : less than 0.2%

Kath. x

Thanks for that information, Kath. Actually the divorce I am interested in would have taken place between 1904 - 1921. So is there any way I can access the records?

Julie

It should be on the National Archives site but I must admit I have never found the site easy to use and always give up whenever I've looked for anything.

Hope you can find it. If you want to give the name I'll have a try but can't promise anything.

Kath. x

Hi Kath, I think you contributed to my previous thread. I want to find out if Vernon Albert Bradshaw (sometimes Mills Bradshaw) and Henrietta Annie Bradshaw got divorced. They married in 1904 and Vernon married again in 1921, but no death recorded for his first wife during that period.

????

England & Wales deaths 1837-2007 Transcription
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First name(s) HENRIETTA A
Last name BRADSHAW
Gender Female
Birth day -
Birth month -
Birth year 1881
Age 67
Death quarter 4
Death year 1948
District WEST HAM
County Essex
Volume 5A
Page 533
Country England
Record set England & Wales deaths 1837-2007
Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
Subcategory Deaths & burials
Collections from Great Britain

Not seeing a divorce
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/divorce.htm

I've not found a divorce either. It is possible that they never actually divorced. In that period divorce was very expensive and difficult for ordinary people to get, so many couples just separated and went on to have other relationships or bigamous marriages. Often the second marriage would be in a different area where no one would know about the first marriage.

Kath. x

Point taken Kath. The second marriage took place in Australia in 1921, but could just as easily have taken place in England as Vernon came to his home town of London, England with his second wife in 1921.