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Thread: Divorce records

  1. #1

    Default Divorce records

    I wonder if someone could point me in the right direction, I'm trying to find a record of my grandparents divorce. Mr Albert Mitchell and yvonne mitchell they were married in 1939 in hendon middlesex, they split up in about 1953 and lived in kent. I don't know where I should look as not sure of the exact area. Would appreciate some advice. Thank you

  2. #2
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    Unfortunately I don't think that you will find anything. Below is a link to the guide published by the National Archives:

    https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/...uides/divorce/

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    You can get a copy of the decree, but it can be expensive to search if you aren't sure where/when it was issued. Unlike the pre-1937 cases it will only confirm hat a divorce was granted, there will be no detail of why.

    https://www.gov.uk/copy-decree-absolute-final-order

    Did either marry again ? - A later marriage certificate would confirm if a divorce had taken place (or should have) and when by.

  4. #4

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    Thank you for that, they both did marry again, i have the marriage date of my nan but not my grandad, would her marriage certificate state the date she was divorced? Many thanks again ��

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    Quote Originally Posted by DonnaB@1964 View Post
    Thank you for that, they both did marry again, i have the marriage date of my nan but not my grandad, would her marriage certificate state the date she was divorced? Many thanks again ��
    If anyone will know for definite it will be Antony
    I have one divorced person marrying into my family and for the groom it says 'Formerly the husband of Winifred Smith, formerly Brown, spinster, from whom he obtained a divorce.' No date for the divorce.

    As you know when your gran married again you have an 'end' date for searching, so you could try the British Newspaper Archive.
    https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
    You have to register to use the site, but searching is free.
    I don't know how many Kent newspapers for the 1950s they have online, nor whether the divorce would have been reported. Might not have been a full-blown report of the court proceedings, but there might just be a brief 'Fred Bloggs was granted a divorce on x grounds'.
    Mitchell's a fairly common name so in the keywords box put 'divorce' to reduce the number of results.
    If nothing shows up now, then check back in a few months because new pages are being added every week.

    Pam
    Vulcan XH558 - “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

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    Quote Originally Posted by DonnaB@1964 View Post
    Thank you for that, they both did marry again, i have the marriage date of my nan but not my grandad, would her marriage certificate state the date she was divorced? Many thanks again ��
    No - but it will say "previous marriage dissolved" if she was divorced.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AntonyMMM View Post
    No - but it will say "previous marriage dissolved" if she was divorced.
    My mother was divorced in about 1946 and remarried at Coventry Register Office in 1948. Her previous marital status on the 1948 certificate is described as: “The divorced wife of x.” It doesn't give the date of the divorce.

    When I registered her death a few years back, the Registrar in Sussex said nowadays they’d use ”previous marriage dissolved” (As Antony has explained). But clearly divorced does appear on some records.
    ELWYN

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    The wording was changed to just "previous marriage dissolved " at about that time ...I think after the 1949 Marriage Act.

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