Divorce in the Uk in the 1940s

[tervlynia]

Hello

My late Auntie's first marriage was 1942 in the UK. She subsequently re married in 1947 in Canada. I have the Parish Register entry for her first marriage and a copy of her second marriage which took place in Canada. The certificate of her second marriage states that she was divorced.  I sent a request off to the Decree Absolute Searches in London and it has come back 'No Trace'. The search was for a 10 year period between 1942 and 1951.  Are there any other searches which can be completed to find out if a divorce took place.

Would the negative trace indicate that she was not divorced.

Is there any way the marriage could have been annulled other than a divorce ?

[nanny jan]

Hi,

Have you looked for a divorce in Canada or possibly Scotland?


Nanny Jan

[stanmapstone]

Is there any way the marriage could have been annulled other than a divorce ?

An annulment means that, legally, the marriage has never happened. Marriages can be annulled if they are 'void' or 'voidable'. A void marriage has never come into real existence because of some fundamental legal defect. Petitions for nullity or annulment of marriage were relatively rare.
See Nullity at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Divorce_in_England_and_Wales

Stan

[MargP]

Hi

Have you checked to see if her first husband remarried

Margp

[Cell]

Hi,
Could it  be a case  of that the divorce records have not survived?

" The survival rate of divorce case files is:
•1858-1927:  almost 100%
•1928-1937:  80%
•]After 1937 :  less than 0.2%"

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/divorce.htm?WT.lp=rg-3175

 Above quoted from TNA
I've read somewhere in the past, that they are destroyed after 20 years.

I don't know anything about Canadian certs and how they do things, my experience relate to England and Wales only .
One of my ancestors  had a few divorces and one annulment in the 1940's and  the 1950's  On  her marriage cert (the marriage after her  previous marriage ended in  annulment ) it  states  " Previous marriage dissolved"   . On her other marriage certs that occur after a divorce, they state "divorced"  and  also state  her previous husband (s) names in the condition column, unlike her dissolved one below.
All her marriages occurred in the 1940's and 1950's.

Kind Regards

[nanny jan]

There should still be a record of the Decree Absolute if it was granted in England or Wales.

[Cell]

Hi,
Perhaps  her divorce  could be in Canada as suggested (?)
http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/family/divorce/documentation/

It seems a lot of money to me to trace a divorce, that may or may not have occurred in any one of the countries, perhaps as Margp has suggested, it may be an idea to look for her first husband. Did he re-marry? And if so, what does he say on his marriage cert?

Kind Regards

[halhawk]

Have you tried a newspaper search?  I've found information about a family divorce in the 1940s in local newspapers. 

[jorose]

You could try:
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/vital-statistics-births-marriages-deaths/divorce-1841-1968/Pages/search.aspx
(I believe this does not include records from the provincial courts)

Another possibility is that she (or her husband) started divorce proceedings, but they didn't complete the process, so there was no degree absolute. She may have been under the impression that she was legally free to marry anyway.  Or figured she was on the other side of the world so it didn't matter.