Where will i find divorce records?

[foggyjano]

My great grandmother Lucy Pearson married Samuel Pearson in 1858
    Bilston, Staffordshire, Wolverhampton
    free BMD 1858 q3 185

she went on to marry William Thomas in 1862
ICG register BMD Q3 1862 west bromwich volume 6b page 783

I have two choices of Samuel Thomas born in Staffordshire - one was in prison in 1861 who was then deported to oz and the other one was living with his sister and her husband listed as married in 1861

so did she divorce one the one living with the sister? Would there be record of the divorce?

If she was married to the one who was sent to Oz would there still be a record of the divorice?

There must have been some kind of divorce to allow her to marry my gt gt gt grandfather in 1862..

This is confusing the hell out of me

[PaulineJ]

She probably wouldn't bother with the divorce (on the basis he wasn't coming back), although since you don't have any marriage certificate (I assume) how can you tell those particular GRO refs are relevant to your family?

Who is this Samuel Thomas anyhow?

Pauline

[foggyjano]

Lucy and William Thomas are my gt gt gt grandparents,

I have the marriage cert of Lucy Thomas (nee pearson) married William Thomas 1862. This shows her father as Joesph Pearson, but her name is Lucy Thomas - hence she married another man called Thomas before my gt gt gt grandfather William Thomas.

Family story is there was another Mr Thomas before she married William,

hence i have looked into marriages for Lucy Pearson in bilston and the only one i can find is to a Samuel Thomas....but i havent yet bought the marriage cert. They had a son named John Thomas born 1858

The reason why i am looking at her first marriage is that i am at a brick wall with William Thomas, and i am trying to see if he was related to Samual Thomas.

However living in bilston area there is a bad lad samual Thomas who was in and out of prison  according to ancestry crime history and eventually sent to Oz for 7 years, the year before my gt gt gt grandmother married my gt gt gt grandfather.

Therefore i was wondering if a divorce would of been granted..on the paper work for samual thomas going to oz in 1861, it states he is married with one child...so this fits.  In 1861 lucy is living with her son john, with her sister

any way thanks for your help

[PaulineJ]

That's where you are confusing me.
You start by stating that Lucy Pearson m Samuel Pearson.

[foggyjano]

I have ordered Lucy and Samuals marriage cert, no point trying to guess!!!

[Mini G]

It's highly unlikely that Lucy would have got a divorce from her first husband.  In those days, a divorce was difficult & expensive to obtain, and was not really an option for ordinary people.  It's more likely that she either :

- married again without bothering to get a divorce (as already suggested). The very restrictive divorce laws meant that bigamy was more common than today!

- her first husband died before she married the second.  I was wondering what evidence you have that the first Mr Thomas was transported to Australia?  Transportation didn't officially end until 1868, but had been uncommon for some years before that.