Researching Bigamy

[sarahofford]

Please could someone advise me how I can dig deeper into the history of my great grandparents (both deceased)? The story apparently involves my grandfather marrying bigamously several times and my grandmother attempting to sell their marital home several times, without his permission and doing a runner with the money. The details I have for them are:

Walter John Offord B 1905 (father Walter Edmund Offord)
married in 1934 in Hackney to
Hilda Margaret Isaacson B 1905 Hackney (father Phillipe Joseph Isaacson and mother Elizabeth Sarah Keeley) also used the surname Keeley as her maiden name on my grandfather's birth certificate as she had apparently been disowned for marrying outside of the Jewish faith.

Their last child was born in 1944, so I expect there should be some record of a case being tried for bigamy at some point in the late 1940s or 1950s.

Please could some kind individual advise as to where I should take my investigation next to uncover the details behind this rather interesting couple? I have already tried the old bailey online, but I think it would have been too late to be included in teh available records.

Thanks in advance for your help! 

[Nick29]

Assuming he got caught, of course.  Bigamy was quite prevalent in 20th-century England, because getting a divorce was not as easy as it is now, and was expensive too, especially if the other side contested it.  Many were never caught, especially in the chaos and confusion after the war.

If that's the case, all you can do is to trawl for marriages of the same name, and then try to establish that it's the same person (assuming he used his own name each time).  If it's a common name, this could prove expensive.

[sarahofford]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for your response. The family story has it that he was caught and convicted, but (and I don't know how likely this is) the judge felt that his first wife was such an awful woman that he refused to pass a sentance. This would have been in the 1950s. Would this mean that I could track down a record of this case?

Many Thanks

Sarah

[Spidermonkey]

Sarah,

Do you know who your gt grandfather married bigamously?  Because it appears that a Walter J Offord married the same person twice, firstly in Lewisham in 1942 and then in Rochford in 1946.

Perhaps the first marriage was found to be illegal, and the second marriage took place after a divorce/death of spose (or perhaps they just thought they wouldn't get caught if they tried somewhere else  )

Pure speculation of course - certs would be needed to back everything up

[sarahofford]

I'd found those records and my initial reaction was that the first was found to be illegal and he then married her legally after he had been found guilty of bigamy (presumably he would have been able to divorce his first wife following the trial?). I plan to get the marriage certificates for both marriages, but I'm not sure if there would be anyway to find out why exactly they married twice?

I'm hoping that there is some official record of bigamy charges and convictions, and/or marriages found to be illegal on the grounds of bigamy? It seems to be a slightly grey area is  terms of genealogy research.

sarah

[Spidermonkey]

I've just had a quick look on the National Archives website to see if there was a record of a divorce, and also in the Times digital archive to see if an Offord bigamy trial was mentioned but with no luck for either.

Have you spoken the county records offices of Kent and Essex to see if they keep records of trials, or whether they have copies of local newspapers?

[paulyhere]

Hi Sarah, I don't know how this will develop but here goes. I found the info you published was very interesting and may be able to add a little to it. I am quite sure that the Hilda Margaret Isaacson you refer to was my mother! Furthermore  the last child born 1944 was possibly me, that is if she could have only 1 child per year so it must be. So hi there great err whatever.

I haven't worked out how to email you or establish further contact, so will see if you do a further post.

[sarahofford]

Wow. That would make you my great Uncle?!!

I would love to speak to you more.

Please do email me

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Many Thanks

Sarah

[DavidHWright]

A friend of mine, Removedhas important reasons to need to trace her living relatives. She was adopted at birth but has used official channels to identify her biological mother as Margaret Pamela Ann Offord. We know Margaret Offord married Ivan I Beale in 1960 and they had a least 2 children. Margret Offord married a second time to James Smith, which is the surname on her death certificate dated 1989 - The death was reported by  RemovedSmith, her daughter. Calculating her year of birth from this gives me 1936.

The birth of a Margaret Offord (mother's maiden name Isaacson) is registered in the Pancras Registration Area in 1936. This would make her the sister of  Removed Offord and the great aunt of Sarah.

Is anyone able to provide any additional information?

David Wright   

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