Finding out what happened to a first wife

[Inyournewdress]

Hi, would welcome any advice on this.
My grandfather married my grandmother in 1931, they married in England.

I did not know him, or much about his background, but never heard any suggestion of a previous marriage.
He was Irish and I have discovered that he did in fact marry before, in Dublin in 1924. I know that at one point in between the two marriages he went to America and listed his married status and wife (although she wasn’t with him) on the ship’s passenger log.
I have sent for the marriage certificate so I can find out the birth year and parent’s names of the first wife, but it hasn’t arrived yet.
I cannot so far find any death record that looks likely to be her, so I am thinking she may have remarried herself and her death be recorded under another name. Does anyone know how to find out about possible divorces?

"Does anyone know how to find out about possible divorces?"

My personal experience has been that Irish divorces are very difficult indeed to trace - it's easier for England & Wales.

"I have sent for the marriage certificate so I can find out the birth year and parent’s names of the first wife, but it hasn’t arrived yet."

You won't necessarily get those things from the marriage certificate. If both parties were over the age of 21 then the age was normally just recorded as "full". Although I've found that records older than the 1920s were more likely to give the actual age

Also, just the father's name is given rather than both parents names, but of course, you can then use that to search for the marriage of the father.

A useful free resource for Irish births marriages and deaths is this:

https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/

I've found that images of the marriage records at the local church are, confusingly, held under the civil records rather than the parish records.

Here is an example of what they looked like from 1911

Thank you so much @Another2Cats, that’s really helpful

@Inyournewdress On your grandparents' marriage certificate in 1931, there should be a section for their marital status, ie 'bachelor', 'widower' etc. What does it say beside your grandfather's name?

I would imagine finding historic divorce records in Ireland are extremely difficult indeed, given divorce was only legalised in 1995.

It was possible for couples married in Ireland to divorce in the U.K. of course.

It is more likely that the first wife died sometime before 1931.

It is also quite possible that the first marriage was never dissolved and he simply ignored it.

My guess is if he did get a divorce it would have been in the UK - Ireland didn't have divorce. but divorce in the UK was also very tricky at that time and would have had to be for grounds of adultery - he would have had to prove it against his first wife or she would have had to petition on the grounds of his adultery.

Ah yes good question about the marriage cert @TentEntWenTyfOur
I think it is at my DM’s so will check, but thinking about it I feel sure it must say bachelor rather than widower as otherwise we would have been aware of a previous marriage a long time ago.

Interesting to hear how divorce was to obtain. I think the first wife may have died. I don’t want to cast aspersions. I just do wonder a little as well, let’s just say the second marriage was under time pressure (!) and also I heard that following that he seemed to have very little contact with family back in Ireland. Hard to say whether that last bit is definitely true. According to my DM, my dad did not know if his father had siblings or how many etc. I have discovered since he had ten, many of whom outlived him by quite a long time as he was the oldest, but I never knew of any of them.

It is unlikely that he ever divorced. If he married in Ireland, then went to America and returned across the Atlantic to England, he would have easily been able to just say he was a bachelor and nobody would have questioned it.

Could it be possible that he went to America on his own with his Irish wife expecting to join him once he found a home and a job, but she never heard from him again.

Oh my gosh @TentEntWenTyfOur
I never even thought of that! I hope not! Crikey. It may all come to light. I sometimes think our ancestors would not approve of all this investigation!

This is more likely as it was quite common.

Happened in England as well. The men (usually) just disappeared whether it was wartime or post war, as there was no easy way of checking records. And then they married somebody younger and pregnant as though nothing had ever happened.

We have a similar family mystery which has not been completely resolved, but my grandma and her siblings were horrified that we were able to digitally dig into their parents secret pasts. We had a couple of awkward chats and in the end had to give up.

I’m waiting for the 1931 census to (hopefully) find the final piece of the jigsaw!

Im invested

National Archives Discovery catalogue for UK divorce records for this period. Around 80 percent survive for the period 1928-1937, so if they did divorce in the UK there's a good chance you'll find them there. There's a good research guide re. Divorce records here: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/divorce/. But you'll probably find them easily just by putting names into the catalogue search unless they're very common names. You could also try a newspaper search for clues? Have you checked Scotland also for death/divorce (Scotland's people website)?

Have you searched Irish records for any sign of his first wife? Either a death or remarriage in that surname, or any record in her maiden name. She may also have remarried without mentioning her previous one. It could also be worth searching passenger lists on other vessels in case she did make her way over to America. There may also have been children.

I would say that forgetting you were ever married before, with a wife and children back in Ireland wasn't uncommon when Irish men emigrated to the UK and beyond, sadly.

Sorry if this rains on your parade Moonkiss, but the 1931 census for England and Wales was destroyed in a fire in 1942. Scotland’s census was unaffected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_United_Kingdom_census

Divorces are hard to find. Sort of similar my Great-Grandfather. He left to Canada around 1930’s- on his records he mentions being married and G-Grandma details.

The story is her Mother didn’t want her to move to Canada - he never returned & remarried a few years later. I found the records and it states he was divorced but I find no record of it. I also can’t find him returning to Ireland on any ship records, He had more children and did quite well for himself!

G- Grandma never remarried but did have more children and both records mentions her husband - but obviously he wasn’t the father but as she was married it mentions him! My Granny has no idea and has never spoke of her ‘Dad’