Married to the same person-twice!

innjess · Post by **innjess** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:00 am

William Murray hutchison was a Scot by birth, so I guess I can try and stretch a point, and ask if anybody can find a reason why he was married twice to the same woman?!
Ancestry records that he married Betsy Timbs in 1901 (Ref: Volume 4a Page 135 - West Ham) and in 1904 (Ref: Volume 4n Page 609 -West Ham).
He really is a most "elusive" character, for want of a better description, as I have still been unable to confirm his exact date of birth!
Innjess

Post by **Ina** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:14 am

Hi Innjess,

Perhaps he married once at the Registry Office and once in a church ceremony.

Regards,

Ina

Hugo · Post by **Hugo** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:15 pm

Perhaps they married, then divorced, and then remarrieed?

JUst a thought,

Hugo

nelmit · Post by **nelmit** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:45 pm

innjess wrote:William Murray hutchison was a Scot by birth, so I guess I can try and stretch a point, and ask if anybody can find a reason why he was married twice to the same woman?!
Ancestry records that he married Betsy Timbs in 1901 (Ref: Volume 4a Page 135 - West Ham) and in 1904 (Ref: Volume 4n Page 609 -West Ham).
He really is a most "elusive" character, for want of a better description, as I have still been unable to confirm his exact date of birth!
Innjess

I too thought of the registry office/church scenario as his wife hadn't been dead long enough for the 'required mourning period' in 1901. The more romantic side of me imagines the 1st marriage was to give her his name as she was helping raise his children (she was his housekeeper) and the 2nd when he grew to really love her.

Regards,
Annette

trish1 · Post by **trish1** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 3:14 am

There are many errors in the GRO indexes for England and Wales.
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mikefost/

If you are able to contact the local registry office, they may be able to advise whether there were, in fact two marriages, or whether there is an error in the GRO index. Otherwise perhaps buying both certificates (if there are 2) may provide some additional information.

If there were two marriages, my only thought would be that the first was found invalid for a reason. If this isn't easily seen from the certificate, sometimes looking for details of the person who performed the ceremony can provide some clues.

Trish

Post by **Ina** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:15 am

Hi Trish,

Years from now anyone searching for my marriage record will also find two entries. I was married in a civil ceremony and then two months later was married in the church.

Regards,

Ina

innjess · Post by **innjess** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:45 am

Ina, Hi!
Same thing with my parents in the 30s, which caused considerable uproar in my father's family. Apparently, my mother and father wanted to keep the Civil Wedding a secret, hoping that it would encourage them to save money, but, when they came to the "official" church wedding, the vicar refused to marry them, unless their parents were told of the first wedding. Reason being that the bridal party would be going into the vestry, where the legal documents were to be signed, and, to the surprise of everybody, except the bride and groom, there would be no documents to sign!
I didn't find out until I was 20, and then only by accident, so they were probably quite embarrassed by it all!
So, I wonder, did you complete two sets of documents?
Innjess

Post by **Ina** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 11:02 am

Hi Injess,

My case was a little different. I was a good living catholic, received the sacraments every Sunday, and all the priests at the parish knew me. When we decided to get married, the parish priest said that I needed to have 3 priests from Scotland write letters confirming that I had never been married before, and also get copies of my communion and confirmation certificates from the chuch I attended in Scotland.

I was pretty put out by this, knowing that these priests knew me very well, and yet still wanted me to go through all the red tape that the catholic church demanded.

We decided to just go have a civil ceremony and to heck with the church. Two months later the parish priest asked if I had got the letters from the priest in Scotland. He was shocked when I told him we were already married outside of the church. He said he would marry us immediatly without the papers as he "didn't want us living in sin"

.........and yes, we did fill out two sets of papers. We got married on New Years Eve in the catholic church.

Regards,

Ina

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