Bachelor or Widower

[Guest]

I have a man who marries in 1882 and is single, he then marries in 1887 and is a Bachelor, cannot find death of first wife, am thinking she left him, otherwise why would he not say widowed?

[Sylvia C]

Have you found the first wife in the next census, or marrying?

Did they have any children? If so, can you find those children?

Lots of marriages did break up, divorce was exorbitantly expensive for the ordinary person. Spouses moved on, remarried, usually saying they were either single or widowed ..... with the former being a little more common for men in my experience.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Sometimes they didn't want the new spouse to know they had been married before, but probably it was just easier to say you were single to the registrar.

OC

[Guest]

Thanks for looking
I cannot find the first wife at all after the marriage, but she did have twins that were born and died in 1883 , the father is the informant on the death of the one death cert I sent for, have now sent for the birth of one ,hoping its a different address than on the death, as I cannot find them at that address anyway, I had thought she may have died in childbirth, but not found anything likely.

[Sylvia C]

another alternative was that he put her in the asylum :(

try looking for her by initials and birth year only

[Guest]

oh dear have found a few likely ones, that has upset me, do hope its not her.
Question when it gives their occupation ,is it what they were doing or what they are doing while in the asylum? do any of them work.

[Sylvia C]

it is the work they did before they were admitted.

But also do look to see if it says the marital status.

[Guest]

thanks for that , dont think she worked after the marriage .

[Janet in Yorkshire]

If she had twins, who died, it could have been such a traumatic experience that she simply decided that life as a wife was not for her.
As far as I know I only have one bigamist in my tree, but it took us quite a while to work out that he was a bigamist. We'd traced two marriages and lots of children from the second marriage, and, we thought, one child from the first marriage, although we couldn't find a baptism for this boy, nor the death of his mother.
It turned out that the boy was born and registered in 1865, with mother named as Elizabeth, whom father eventually married in 1866, claiming to be a widower. The father's first marriage had been to Mary in 1862. At the age of 35, Mary eventually died in 1868 in her native village, where her father resided and where she was buried in the churchyard.
So, something had gone wrong with the marriage within the first couple of years, leading to the husband going off with a new "wife" - I've often wondered if supposed marital bliss was not to her liking, or if he was cruel/abusive towards her? Such scenarios do, occasionally, still happen today.

Jay

[Guest]

I have another thread about this man .
There was a printer of the same age name and area ,charged with murder in 1884, so do wonder if it was him and she left him over that, he did serve 18 months.
Thanks for your help