Genealogy Chat

Hi Am a bit foxed by this one, but wanted to ask advice before going back to 'Courts Service' to widen my search for my Great Grandparents Divorce... My Great Grandparents- Thomas Edwin Shand and Agnes Shand are said to have divorced some time in the 1920's-30's and then Agnes re-married a Joseph Elkington in 1939. On that marriage certificate it says- 'The Divorced wife of Thomas Edwin Shand'. I have sent off to the Principal Registry Of The Families Division for a search of the records from 1920-1940 and they have found no results! Could Agnes have remarried Joseph without having to prove that she was divorced from Thomas? Or would she have had to provide docummentation in 1939? Any help gratefully received and if she DID need proof, I'll go back to the PROTCD and take my search back even further.

I think you probably could get away with it ,not sure when this was toughened up though and they did more checks. My grandfather was divorced in the 1920s , but haven't checked for any documents yoet. Kim

My father-in-law was married twice. He had documentary proof of his decree absolute which his solicitor sent registered mail with a letter saying he would need to produce this if he wanted to remarry. On his marriage cert to my mother in law, it says 'previously married to XXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXXX [with date of marriage] from whom he obtained a divorce'. nell

Is this Thomas and Agnes who are on marriage register freebmd 1909? If so, do you think the divorce could be much earlier, or in Scotland perhaps? Were there children of this marriage? Tracing their birthdates might narrow down your search.

Do you have the second marriage cert for Agnes? If she said she was divorced then she should have had to provide the decree absolute, but you need to check what she gave as her marital status! As an aside, there was a piece in the paper the other day about a bigamist. He had used his decree absolute from his divorce to ''prove'' his status for a subsequent marriage. He then used the same divorce papers for the next marriage too, without bothering with getting a divorce from his second wife!! Merry

Thanks for all the tips everyone. In answer to Merry's question, the status on my Great Grandmother's second marriage certificate reads- 'The divorced wife of Thomas Edwin Shand'. So, I can only presume that they were divorced before 1920, even though they had their last daughter-Phillis in 1923 and Thomas was named as her father? Is this a practice that was used to make sure that a child was 'legitimate', even though the father could have been someone else? I shall go back to the Principal Registry and widen my search.

Surely they could lie and say they were widowed - who'd know? maybe they could say they were single (if a man you'd have your birth cert with the right name) again who'd know?

one of my aunts married and when she got pregnant found out he was already married so he obviously lied.

Yes, they could lie, but Neil says she didn't. As it says she was divorced, then she would have had to show the decree absolute. I looked in The Times newspaper Archive where divorces for Eng and Wales were recorded, but couldn't see one for these particular Shands :O(( Merry

ooh hello (its me in disguise) could you possibly look for a divorce for me then, just going to watch the X factor back later with details if you can thanks a lot

Any time, Val.......(You may not be able to see MY disguise from where you are, but am wearing false beard and moustache - fetching, I think?) Merry

you do make me laugh I can just imagine you in that !!! I dont know which years you can do but if you could be grateful, I have a George Arthur Miller married a Marietta Tomaselli in 1935 in Kensington she was a catholic so was surprised they divorced within about 15 years, sorry I cannot be any more helpful dont worry if thats not enough info I will understand, also a Henry W Miller married about 1945 dont know her name ,and divorced after their baby died again not really sure when exactly he also married again in 1973 as I said if I am asking for miracles dont worry, thanks a lot , by the way does your Moustache itch????

Oops sorry, just having a scratch! No luck with the various Millers - reason is that they divorced too late!! - The Times newspaper used to report all decree absolutes, but as the number of divorces increased they realised they would need a daily colour supplement to cope!! So, they stopped reporting everything and went for juicy scandelous divorces instead. I would say the change from one sort of reporting to the other occurred about 1935ish. Am now changing into my Lone Ranger outfit........Hi-Ho Silver!! Merry

Hi Alan sneaky eh???this Aunt of mine was so posh her daughter tried to hide this from us until her niece started the family tree ,she was horrified which is silly because it wasnt their fault.

thanks for trying Merry or is it The Lone Ranger??