Author Topic: Divorce in the 1920's?  (Read 998 times)

Offline curiousfox

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Divorce in the 1920's?
« on: Thursday 06 March 08 08:27 GMT (UK) »
Hi everyone, i have come across some anomalies on the marriage certificate for my Mums Uncle. His name was Arthur Roote and he married, well i know that he married Henrietta Dawson - spinster in 1924, however i have since discovered that Henrietta was in fact Harriet, and that she had married a Richard Hutton in 1910. Harriet had a son by Richard born 1912, my family knew nothing about the 1st marriage or indeed the child (he was raised by his father). The point is that Richard also remarried - stating that he was a bachelor!
My point is, were Harriet ( Henrietta) and Richard actually divorced, or were their 2nd marriages bigamous? I haven't a clue how to trace a record of divorce, can anyone help me?
Oh yes, they were all involved in the acting profession, and i am told that Arthur and Harriet led a somewhat bohemian lifestyle, in fact it seems from the marriage cert that they had been cohabiting before the big day, perhaps a little daring in the 1920's! But then they were living in London at the time.......
Biscoe
Breakspear
Fiddy
Durden
Waklin
Roote
Loughnane
Norman. of Bristol and Wilts
Churchill. Berkshire
Hawtree. Herts and Middlesex

Offline percy porter

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Re: Divorce in the 1920's?
« Reply #1 on: Thursday 06 March 08 08:55 GMT (UK) »
If a legal divorce had been obtained and it was cofessed at the time of the marriage then it would have been noted on the marriage certificate, some thing along the lines of "former wife of ******* from whom she obtained a divorce"

I have two on my books who were divorced and they both have words to that effect on the marriage certificates.

Alan NZ
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Offline Mean_genie

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Re: Divorce in the 1920's?
« Reply #2 on: Thursday 06 March 08 11:26 GMT (UK) »
Divorce files in England and Wales for this period are held in The National Archives, and you can search for them by name in the online Catalogue.

I just did a search and there was nothing for Richard and Henrietta or Harriet Hutton, so their second marriages could well have been bigamous (barring the possibility of the odd missing or mis-indexed document). You'd be surprised how common this was; If both parties were equally keen to get away from each other, neither would have any interest in reporting the other one, so they could easily get away with it.

Mean_genie

Offline curiousfox

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Re: Divorce in the 1920's?
« Reply #3 on: Thursday 06 March 08 16:04 GMT (UK) »
Thank you both for your replies, and thanks for doing a look-up mean genie, it confirms my suspicions!
They were a very interesting couple, and i guess this makes them just a little more so.... 8)
Biscoe
Breakspear
Fiddy
Durden
Waklin
Roote
Loughnane
Norman. of Bristol and Wilts
Churchill. Berkshire
Hawtree. Herts and Middlesex