'Till death do us part..... unless we divorce

 

Late last year I was introduced to the Divorce records held by New South Wales State Archives at Kingswood.  Covid restrictions meant you had to book reading rooms in advance to view records.  I bit the bullet and paid to have digitised copies sent to me. At this point I was being nosy and the divorced people were mostly “acquaintances”.

If you book a reading room at the State Archives at Kingswood you don’t pay for the record look up you just have to order them in advance and be prepared to speed scan or copy the documents.  The five different divorce records cost about $150 plus an administration fee. Believe me, I was sitting on my hands to avoid buying more.

A cost of around $150 is a bargain really considering the travel, time, petrol and lunch money it would take to make the trip from Wollongong to Kingswood.  They arrived by email within a couple of weeks and what a treasure trove of information.

 

I had chosen divorces which took place over about a 10-year period. In the 50s the traditional view of marriage was a Christian one -union for life.

There was a stigma against divorce. There was also a stigma against de facto relationships, ex-marital children. One parent families were almost unheard of and people went to great lengths to avoid public scrutiny by moving towns, disappearing etc. 

Given this, I was stunned at how many cases I could have chosen from. Possibly the moral compass was moving due to changes to society during and after the Second World War. 

 

The first family scandal I uncovered when I started doing family history 10 years ago was a bigamous marriage and a divorce. The offending party moved to Australia to avoid any problems however by the time it got to his third wife she refused to marry him before his second marriage was properly ended. I’m sure she knew nothing of the first marriage wife and children back in England!

 

This 70s Soapie is turning 50

As I was reading through the documents it occurred to me how many people lived within close proximity and how they were intertwined. A kind of real-life story line for a soapie like “Number 96” or “Neighbours”. Think serial divorces, multiple marriages, people befriending lonely people and all in two Eastern suburbs apartment blocks. An unexpected  1950s  hot bed of scandal. Several other people rushed into second marriages after their partner’s marriages were also declared Decree Absolute.

 

Incidentally my mother as a teenager lived in this particular apartment block watching the marriages fall apart, legal wrangling, friendships made and further marriages. A few years later it was the apartment where my brother and I were born. We knew some of the players too although maybe not the backstory.

 

Divorce terms:

Under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1873 the Supreme Court hears cases to dissolve a marriage, authorise separation, order restitution of marital rights, payments of maintenance, custody of children.

Decree Nisi is the initial conditional grant of the divorce.

Decree absolute is the final grant of the divorce if the decree nisi was not rescinded or appealed the decree absolute was obtained after 3 to 6 months.

 

My understanding was that the 70s the Family Law Act brought in “no fault divorce” where people stuck in loveless marriages, domestic violence, adultery etc were able to achieve divorces much more readily.  The official reason for a divorce in the 1950s were much more difficult to prove -desertion, adultery, cruelness, drunkenness, imprisonment and insanity.

 

It seems to me that some of the soon to be divorced couples “played the system”. A marriage could be finalised it appears quite easily if one person led the case for desertion and it wasn’t contested.

 

Cover of divorce package

What do you find in divorce packages?  

The packages I received were each 30 to 50 pages long, delivered via a Dropbox links and easily copied to my computer.

You will usually find:

There are many procedural copies of documents which must be filed. E.g., Notice of service documentation and hearing details.

• The legal document lodging a petition for dissolution of marriage. This notice is served on the respondent. An address or workplace details may be revealed.
• Any correspondence, replies letters written between the couples etc.
• Copies of the marriage certificate may be included in the package.  A handy side benefit if you are looking for parents’ names, occupations.
• Details of children of the marriage and arrangements for support.
• Information which may not have been shared or is unknown amongst family members i.e., “the other side of the story”
• Some court transcripts and witness statements.
• Ruling of Decree Nisi and request to make the Decree Absolute.
• Requests for custody of children and other support.

The paperwork is all a bit clerical and procedural but read between the lines and you may find some little gems such as the judge asking if X was also involved in the divorce XXX (under a different name)  on date­­­­_______

Warning be prepared to read of domestic violence, adultery and cruelty.

How did it all work?

Under the Matrimonial Causes Act  the Supreme Court hears cases to dissolve a marriage, authorise separation, order restitution of marital rights, payments of maintenance, custody of children. (Note each State had their own legislation)

I suspect these divorces didn’t involve private investigators and photographers looking through windows catching people out. They certainly weren’t wealthy people who could spend money on a costly law suit.  They were merely people desperate to “move on” so to speak. Perhaps they were subject to cruelty, drunkenness or looking for financial support from a deserting partner.

You could apply for a divorce if you were separated for more than five years and married for more than three years.

 

Part of the Transcript from the case

Often the decree nisi was given when the wife’s or husband’s petition was undefended. E.g., the husband had disappeared or the wife had left and taken the children.

Additional information can supplement your knowledge of the divorce situation (and may even save you the cost of obtaining the divorce papers.)

For example, once I found out the person involved in the divorce had been previously married under another name, I searched Trove resources for newspaper reports.  Low and behold the scandal across two states was reported.

The case is reported in the Court notices

Many times, you can find the Hearing, Decree Nici and Decree Absolute listed in the Court proceedings section of the paper.  Some cases of divorce were reported in the newspapers (the juicier the better). Journalists would cover Court cases and  occasionally juicy divorces were reported or on a slow day or in a gossipy country town you might get the whole nitty-gritty.

Another tip: When looking searching for legal cases through Trove try using Surname v Surname such as Jackson v Jackson rather than the individual’s names but feel free to try both.

When looking through my 5 divorces I expected to see “names “ or accusations of adultery because I really assumed there were “people in waiting”.

From the divorces that I purchased it is clear that many were involved in other relationships. Their partner or both were trying to orchestrate a quick resolution (divorce) to free them to marry again. This is where I think some of them worked the system. It was decided that one was going to become the claimant against the other who would conveniently not respond to the service of papers or disappear out of town until such time as the decree nisi was granted.  After that you had to wait 3 to 6 months for the decree absolute. As a result, the divorce was issued on the grounds of desertion or withdrawal of conjugal rights.

The parties had to ensure they were not caught in any in discreet situations. An interesting clause which turned up in various affidavits was

“I am aware that I must disclose to the court any acts of adultery committed by me during the marriage until the decree granted in this suit has been made absolute.”

Bide your time, then pop off to the nearest registry Office and marry again!

 

I’m addicted – I’m off to spend another $150 in the name of research