Criminal records

[Mandy in Wiltshire]

I've just come across my first proper criminal in the family :d:eek: and it's fairly recent in family history terms too.

The crime was bigamy and took places in the 1940s. Is there any way of finding out whether or not he was actually charged? I suspect he might have been because I have two certificates for the same marriage, one bigamous and one legal, four years apart, and he has two completely different occupations on them. It's possible that he was dismissed from the services.

Hope someone can help! Thanks :)

[Olde Crone]

Where did you get the certs from, Mandy?

If both came from the GRO (and not passed down your family I mean) then it is likely the bigamy went undiscovered, as the GRO are (is???) obliged to suppress a bigamous marriage certificate.

OC

[Mandy in Wiltshire]

Where did you get the certs from, Mandy?

If both came from the GRO (and not passed down your family I mean) then it is likely the bigamy went undiscovered, as the GRO are (is???) obliged to suppress a bigamous marriage certificate.

OC

Oooh, many thanks for that, OC! I got them both from the GRO, they arrived this morning. That's a very useful piece of information, I didn't realise that the GRO should suppress a bigamous marriage certificate.

The first marriage was in 1946 in a church and he presented himself as a bachelor. He then divorced in 1949 (I have a copy of the divorce papers from his daughter) and married the second wife again in 1950, this time in a register office.

The registrar's comment in the 'condition' box will appeal to your sense of humour, I'm sure; instead of 'previous marriage dissolved', the registrar has written 'the divorced husband of Jane Bloggs, formerly Jones, spinster'. I reckon the registrar was a woman :d

[Olde Crone]

Mandy

Not sure why you thought it was a bigamous marriage then? It does all seem in order.

EDIT - DURH! You mean he was married before the 1946 marriage! Sounds as if he got away with bigamy otherwise you wouldn't have got the 1946 cert. Is bigamy mentioned as part of the divorce proceedings?

OC

[Mandy in Wiltshire]

Mandy

Not sure why you thought it was a bigamous marriage then? It does all seem in order.

EDIT - DURH! You mean he was married before the 1946 marriage! Sounds as if he got away with bigamy otherwise you wouldn't have got the 1946 cert. Is bigamy mentioned as part of the divorce proceedings?

OC

Sorry, I didn't make it very clear! Yes, he was married for the first time back in 1939 and had two children, but when he came back from Dunkirk he told his wife that he'd met someone else. He then married wife number 2 before he was divorced from wife number 1.

He was in the Coldstream Guards and I know that you can join up for varying lengths of time, but by the legal second marriage he was only 34 but no longer in the Guards.

Many thanks for your help, much appreciated :)

[Merry]

The registrar's comment in the 'condition' box will appeal to your sense of humour, I'm sure; instead of 'previous marriage dissolved', the registrar has written 'the divorced husband of Jane Bloggs, formerly Jones, spinster'. I reckon the registrar was a woman :d

My mother-in-law's second marriage cert (1950) has her described in a similar fashion, but I can't tell the sex of the registrar as they have only put initials!!

[Mandy in Wiltshire]

My mother-in-law's second marriage cert (1950) has her described in a similar fashion, but I can't tell the sex of the registrar as they have only put initials!!

This one just has initials too, but it was 1950 so perhaps it was the same registrar :d I thought it sounded like a woman who was determined not to let the groom just get away with having his previous marriage dissolved, he was going to be described in far more detail :D

[samesizedfeet]

My grandparents marriage cert (1946 off the top of my head) also describes them both in a similar vein.

Somewhere I have a fantastic newspaper cutting of a report in the local newspaper about my nan who apparently just walked out of the house leaving her two daughters to fend for themselves until their father got home. (Fantastic is probably the wrong word here)

[Mandy in Wiltshire]

Somewhere I have a fantastic newspaper cutting of a report in the local newspaper about my nan who apparently just walked out of the house leaving her two daughters to fend for themselves until their father got home. (Fantastic is probably the wrong word here)

That's weird, I actually know someone whose mother did the same thing. She said she was just nipping out for a loaf of bread :eek::(

[maggie_4_7]

Unusual for women to do that but oh well.

There was always that story wasn't there its one my mum used to say when I asked where my father was, 'No idea Marg he popped out for a bottle of milk and I never saw him again'

:)