Who Do You Think You Are Magazine Forum

[cc2016]

First, sorry if this question has been answered in the past, as I'm new to researching family tree and have only just joined this forum.

My question is, how do you find a woman who has been married and re-married, ie. you have her maiden name and her first marriage name but no details of her next marriage (or subsequent marriages for that matter) or if the female relative is indeed alive or dead?

I guess it is always going to be difficult with females who re-marry compared to males.

Any advice anyone?

Many thanks.

CC.

[KayFarndon]

A woman who is divorced, will usually re-marry with her previous married surname unless she has reverted to her original maiden name and I suspect to remarry she would have to make the new surname legal.
You will just have to be patient and trawl the records, first to check that she has not died with what ever name you have for her and also to see whether she had re-married with either her maiden name or the name of her previous marriage.
If you know the areas then it should not be too difficult and parish records would hold the key.

[cc2016]

Hello Kay,
Thanks for your help.

So, would you recommend I search deaths first (that is if she has died - she'd probably be 60 or so)?

I can't find anything except her first marriage and the fact she was divorced in the late 1970s, I've even tried her maiden name and I'm hitting a brick wall.

Thanks again.
CC.

[phsvm]

It if were me I'd first make sure I had her maiden name then 1st married surname. I'd then search on both her maiden and 1st married name for subsequent marriages. Obviously dating my search to start after the date of her first marriage and, if I knew it, her divorce.

If she re-married you should be able to find it under one of those two - probably under her first married surname.

If I thought she'd died rather than re-married I'd serach under both her maiden and married name. Deaths now record date of birth so if you found a potential death registration and kew her dob you should be able to confirm whether or not you had the correct death.

For future reference - you might find you get more response by posting on the general research queries part of the forum.

[DianaCanada]

I have a distant relative who married 3 times and also changed her surname twice (one was a change her First husband made, the other she made between spouse 2 & 3 - no idea why). If you look under marriage for Raymond Hesselyn in 1948 you will see her listed under three names. However she is not listed with her maiden name which was Pollard. She certainly led me a "marry" dance, but in the end I sorted it out.
Try every name you can think of!

[cc2016]

Thanks for the replies and the advice.

CC

[cc2016]

Hi, sorry to sound thick but I really am a novice at this. Where would you suggest I look? In the local council Births/Marriages/Deaths. If so:
1) is this free to do?
2) is it online?
3) Would it be the local council in the city that she was first married?

I know her maiden name and first married name, she would have been young when married (18) and young when divorced (20ish), which was about 1979. As I say, she could be still alive and living anywhere in the world, or she may have died, I think she would be about 61 or 62years old now.

Thanks,
CC

[phsvm]

You're not sounding thick at all. We've all had to learn how to do this.

You may be able to find the information you're looking for on a free website -
https://www.freebmd.org.uk/
although they only go up to the early 1980s.

Find my Past or Ancestry may give a better result as they will have the same information as FreeBMD but go up to the early/mid 2000s but they are subscription sites.

I've sent you a PM about this.

[Mick Loney]

CC2016,

Another free resource well worth mentioning, is the Familysearch.org website. This is one of the Facilities provided by the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons).

Although the records were primarily gathered (filmed) and transcribed for church purposes, they generously make the records available to everyone. You will need to register (free, with no obligations concerning the church!) to search, but the range of records has to be seen to be believed.

I do urge you to give it a try.