Lloyd/McLennan

[redkop]

Hi,
I have a marriage between Edward Lloyd and Charlotte McLennan.
Their actual certificate shows the wedding to be at All Saints Church, Liverpool, 5th August 1911.
The England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005, records their marriage in 1938 Q1.
Can anyone please help with this? TIA.

NB. She states on her 1911 certificate that she is a widow. But, her first husband, George McLennan doesn't die until 1938. She wasn't a widow in 1911!
In 1911 he was residing at the lunatic asylum in St Helen's, Lancashire.

Thanks Red 

[rosie99]

The GRO index on freebmd shows the marriage in 1911

Marriage Sep qtr 1911   
Lloyd    Edward       
McLennan    Charlotte       
Liverpool   Reg District 8b   40

LancashireBMD shows this on their index
LLOYD   Edward   
MCLENNAN   Charlotte   
1911   
Liverpool, All Saints   
Liverpool   2019LP/10/230   

Charlottes father is shown as Robert James Ellis on the marriage image
...

For the 1938 marriage Lancashire BMD shows this

LLOYD *   Edward   ELLIS, Charlotte      
LLOYD *   Edward   MCLENNAN, Charlotte   
1938   Toxteth Park, St. Cleopas   
Liverpool   2065TP/6/27

[redkop]

Hi Rosie,

Thanks for your reply.

Does this mean they married twice? Both in church?

Thanks,

Red :0

[rosie99]

She clearly lied when she married in 1911.  You really need the 1938 certificate to see what it says.

[redkop]

Thanks  Rosie,

I will go to the records office.

Thanks again,

Red 

[rosie99]

Hopefully AntonyMMM will see this post as he may be the best person to advise you 

[AntonyMMM]

It is quite a common scenario - a marriage breaks down and rather then divorce one, or both, marries someone else.

When they "married" in 1911 she wasn't free to do so, so it wasn't legally valid. Once the first husband has died they marry again.

I have exactly the same in my own extended family - a man who married in 1909, but then married someone else in 1916, falsely claiming to be a widower. In his case it was quickly discovered and he was sentenced to 6 months in prison for bigamy. On release he carried on living with his second "wife" as a married couple, having children ( and registering the births as though they were married) and when his first wife died in 1948 they went and got married again.

[BumbleB]

I have a slightly different variation:

Couple marry, then obtain a divorce (I have the paperwork) in 1871.  She later re-marries as a "Divorced Woman", whilst he also re-marries as a "Widower" (and he was a policeman  )

[MollyC]

I read somewhere, and forgot the source, that during some period it was permissable for a man (but not a woman?) to describe himself as a widower when in fact he was divorced.  Later I came across a distant relative who did that when he remarried in the C of E in 1919, then emigrated in 1920 with second wife and two children from the first marriage.  In 1921 his first wife was living under her maiden name and remained so until her death in 1960.

Maybe some took the liberty of describing themselves as widowed when not actually divorced.