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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => London & Middlesex Lookup Requests => London and Middlesex => England => London & Middlesex Completed Lookup Requests => Topic started by: Gill Denny on Monday 22 August 05 17:57 BST (UK)
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Hi, can anyone offer any help on a family mystery? My grandmother (maiden name Hilda Agnes Glynn) died in WW2 leaving my mother an orphan. She was married in 1936 shortly before my Mother was born to a man called Ronald Reginald Franklin, however the name on my mother's b/c was entered as Lee. This was later changed to Glynn with no explanation. There have been family rumours that it was a bigamous marriage but no hard evidence has come to light so far. My grandmother's extended family successfully managed to keep her in the dark about her parentage and now there is noone left to ask. Has anyone seen or heard any stories about a Glynn/Franklin bigamous marriage or perhaps can point me in the right direction for further research. Thanks, Gill.
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Bigamy seems to have been very common in the days before divorce was easily and cheaply available. I don't think it was always deliberate attempts to conceal two spouses at the same time, but more usually a remarriage after a separation of some time (but without the legal divorce in between). Some clues to bigamous marriages would be things like the second marriage taking place in a completely different parish (where the person already married wasn't known). Discovering what really happened is probably a long process of going through records to find any possible marriages of the person and then death records to find whether and when previous spouses died. You may never really know who the father of someone was, if it wasn't really the name on the birth certificate, but you might be able to find a clue as to who this named father might be. Try looking in previous census records - were they a lodger? or a neighbour?