Your ancestors may have permanently separated but never divorced. In some cases, one spouse may have sued the other one for separate maintenance (in which case there may be a court record). If there’s not a court case, a deed separating property may be recorded wherein who has sole title to what property is clearly stated.
If the couple had no real or personal assets, there is a lower chance of any resulting record.
4 Responses
Hello–I can’t find a divorce record or property record of my grandma. She did remarry and he listed himself in the census record as divorced. I plan to look deeper in s month at the court records. Always an interesting time there! Love your tips. Been doing this since 1970’s when I was trying to find my biological family–now I have 8 trees to do!!
Happy Hunting!!
My maternal great grandparents did this. She took the kids and moved from the farm Goderich Tp into town and they are both down as purchasing that house, then she and most of the children moved to Toronto while he never left the farm.
My GG GF had a 2nd marriage to a widow from his home village later in life that is in the VS records, but not in any family bible or stories. The marriage was discovered through research of her primary family. She went to live with her son of from her 1st marriage living in USA. Census in US list her as a widow but he outlived her. No divorce has been found.
Many women who were separated or divorced would say they were widowed. It prevented questions. I have something the opposite. She is listed as married in 1880 census in Topeka, Kansas and widow in 1900 in Chicago. I found an index that I need to follow up on that indicates that her husband died in 1878 in the Topeka, Kansas area. Around this same time I lose track of her oldest daughter. No marriage record in area and too early for death. The younger daughter returns to Topeka in 1905 after her mother dies in Chicago.