DeniseCarr
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Joined: 24 Jul 2007
Posts: 21
Location: Swindon UK
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| Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 9:32 am Post subject: Divorced in 1882 - When is a Widow not a Widow? |
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 1:12 pm by DeniseCarr
I always assumed that John Flack, born 1832 in Cambridge the son of John Flack and Eliza Bradwell (brother of my Great Great Grandfather Walter Flack), died between 1881 and 1891 as his wife Edith Eugenie (nee Thomson) describes herself as a widow in both the 1891 and 1901 censuses. I have been frustrated at not being able to find a suitable entry for him in the GRO Death Indexes and hence not being able to find his exact or even approximate date of death.
Recently while investigating the Flacks that died in The Great War I ordered the marriage certificate for John Flack to Henrietta Lavinia Woodward in 1882. To my great surprise John's condition is given as "the divorced husband of Edith Eugenie Flack formerly Thomson, spinster".
This is the first time I have come across a divorced person remarrying in all the years I have been doing Family History. According to "Ancestry Trails" by Mark D Herbert divorce was very rare at the time - there were only about 150 divorces a year by 1860 and 800 a year by 1914. The number of divorces then increased dramatically mainly as a result of further legislation making divorce more easily obtainable and less costly. Before that time many people separated rather than divorced and in some cases bigamously remarried.
John and Henrietta were married in the Register Office in the District of St Giles, Middlesex. Neither of the two fathers are named on the certificate, but I think Henrietta was born in 1857 in Stepney, the daughter of Robert Woodward and Mary Lavinia Sargent. John and Henrietta had two sons that I know of: Algernon Percy Flack born 1883 in St George Bloomsbury and Albert Norman Flack born 1884 in St Pancras.
Henrietta went on to marry Frank Wood in 1899 - I think John died in West Ham in 1894 but I have yet to confirm that one.
Does anyone else have evidence of a divorce before 1914?
Denise
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Website Owner
Guild of One Name Studies - Flack/Flacke |
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