Were your bigamists discreet?

[KiteRunner]

Do you mean Vivienne, Marion?

[Buttercup]

Hi Buttercup,
Yes I have the two marriage certificates - the names are the same on both, and the father's name are the same on both. The ages correlate to the year my grandfather was born. The 1903 was in Castle Cary and the 1913 was in Dorset. I have traced my grandfather from Castle Cary in 1881 (also have his birth certificate) through to 1901 but lose him in 1911 (which is where the problems started).
One of the witnesses on the first "impostor" marriage (as I have named it to stop me getting confused) has a slightly unusual name - she later went on to marry my grandfather's brother!!! Coincidence possibly! Castle Cary was not a large place.
I have hunted high and low, in Castle Cary and surrounding areas - even up to 12 miles away, to find a second person with a father of the same name (or not even the same name) born within five years of 1881 - still nothing, even if I look in the same county! The 1911 census for the "impostor" states he was b in Castle Cary, likewise his wife.
Sorry - I seem to have taken over this thread :o- didn't mean too - I'm going to ask Valerie to do a hunt for me at the Somerset RO this week to see if she can find a clue - that's about my last hope atm!
Marion

Good luck Marion - I hope you get it sorted and on the bright side, you will have a lot more rellies than you thought ;)

[MarionH]

Do you mean Vivienne, Marion?

Oops - apologies to Vivienne - I have a Valerie in my tree and had just made an alteration to her!!!!!

[MarionH]

Good luck Marion - I hope you get it sorted and on the bright side, you will have a lot more rellies than you thought ;)

Thanks - I wonder if they will want to know me!!!!

[Vivienne]

:D That brings back memories Marion, I had a teacher at senior school who insisted on calling me Valerie. When I was feeling a bit bolshi I would refuse to aswer her & she would get furious.:D

[MarionH]

Grovel grovel

Hi Vivienne, I will not forget your name again
(writes name 100 times)
(Looks for bow down and scrape smilie) - it was a senior moment !!!! I was worrying about my poor George as well!!!!:D

[RNM]

I think its likely that this happened more often than we like to think. Divorce is a very modern concept and certainly not available to middle or working class families. A high shame factor attached to all parties. I have examples well into the 20th century of family members who didn't divorce because of the social implications to them and their extended family. One lived with a "housekeeper" for years until his wife died whereupon he married her and weirdly she went from from being viewed as "staff" to family without anyone blinking !!
Another relative was advised by his solicitor to leave the country rather than divorce - which he did - arriving in South Africa as a single man and leaving his wife socially secure as Mrs. X whos husband was "abroad for his health".

I think given the increasing mobility of the population from the early 1800's the opportunity to escape unhappy marriages increased. After all, starting afresh in a new place was something of a theme of the Victorian age.

Roger

[GallowayLass]

I have a classic case in the OH’s tree.

His Gt. Grandfather on his mother’s side married for the first time in 1871 and invented the surname of his mother. He has 2 sons by this wife. The first (born a month after the wedding) was registered by him, the second at the end 1873 by his wife as by this time Gt. Grandfather had shipped out to a big city and met another woman and got her pregnant.

This other woman gave birth to his child in February 1874 and they later married at the end of 1874. This time Gt. Grandfather gives the same details for his parents as before except that he changes his and his father’s surname slightly. This slightly altered surname was the same one used for the child’s birth.

By 1881, the family had moved from the city back in the direction of the family of the first marriage but not too close to be found out. Gt. Grandfather has taken on his 2nd wife’s surname and the first child begins to use that surname too. All future children are registered with her surname.

You’d think that he might have lived a quiet life, but no! He was active in the community and became a founder member of the local Co-operative Society.

It all comes out in the wash when he dies, as the informant was a nephew of his by marriage who knew the truth of his real name and declared it to the registrar. So Gt. Grandfather’s death certificate is registered under the name he went by and also states his real name. It also gives his mother’s correct maiden name(s). Just to complicate matters she was known by 2 maiden names but neither were the one Gt. Grandfather had declared on his marriages.

His first wife maintained a status of “widowhood” until her death, and, on their marriages, both her sons had declared their father deceased.

Ironically, his granddaughter married into a family who came from very near to Gt. Grandfather’s first wife and her sons. Her husband’s parents are buried 3 plots away from the 2nd son of her grandfather’s first marriage!

[Lindsay]

The problem I've found is when someone changes their name slightly on several different occasions - you can't say for sure that person A is definitely person B, you just have to weigh up the probabilitities.

I'm still not 100% sure OH's 3xGGM made a bigamous marriage, but I'm having trouble coming up with another explanation that fits the facts!

Still, who said this hobby would be easy?

[GallowayLass]

The problem I've found is when someone changes their name slightly on several different occasions - you can't say for sure that person A is definitely person B, you just have to weigh up the probabilitities.

At least I got documented proof. It may explain why, in his dotage, he was taken in by his sister's girl and her husband (the informant) and not by one of his own children. Maybe they found out when their Mum died that he had married her having "forgotten" to unmarry his first wife and weren't too amused?