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| Posted in 1930 in England |
Often a postcard will reveal what are possibly hidden secrets and one card I’m researching for my new book does seem to fall into that category.
When Martha and John married in 1884, she was a spinster and he a bachelor. Over the years that followed, they had at least three children, including a son – Will. Martha doesn’t appear in any census returns with her husband and children. When she died in 1919, she is listed as John’s widow.
In 1910 John sent their son, Will, a postcard with a message that mentions Martha ‘your mother’ in a very sharp comment. At this time, Will is 24 and living with Lucy, his stepmother, and two half-sisters. As Lucy is also mentioned separately, there’s no doubt who ‘your mother’ is.
In 1908 – at a time we know Martha was most definitely alive – John had married Lucy. On the marriage register he declares himself to be a widow.
Had Martha and John divorced? There’s no record of this.
John and Lucy eventually emigrated to America with their two daughters and had several more children in the years that followed. Will and the other children from John’s first marriage remained in the UK.
When I viewed a family tree created by a direct descendant of John and Lucy, they had added a comment that it was ‘strange’ that the couple had married when Martha was still alive. Whether the children of John and Lucy were aware of their parents’ marriage taking place when the first wife was still alive isn’t known, but from the comment on that tree I think it’s likely that if it were known, it wasn’t a story passed down through the following generations.
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| Posted in 1932 in America |
From the postcards researched for my second book, I came across three families that had divorced parents. Of course, there may have been others in the wider trees of those hundred or so cards I chose. Divorce was beyond the reach of most unhappy spouses and it wasn’t until after the First World War that a form of legal aid became available. Even today, in the 21st century, the laws that surround divorce continue to evolve.
Discovering that spouses had ‘misinformed’ the authorities over their true status – when marrying or declaring for a census return – isn’t unknown. Usually, the person had moved away and there would be no one in their new area that would question their status. But until John emigrated to America, both wives and their children lived relatively near to each other.
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| Posted in 1908 in England |
What does surprise me is that given the nature of a
relationship breaking down, of a divorce or bigamy, there were so many cards available
to illustrate this topic and in such a humours manner.
