Divorce records-- find them!

[fudge stripe cookays]

In case you haven't made the venture to a circuit court building to look for them yet, DO IT. I had a sneaking suspicion about this couple, knew they had been divorced between about 1920, and 1930. Saw them living with her mother, and wondered if that might have had something to do with the divorce. Turns out I pegged it.

Got to the courthouse in Rockford yesterday, looked up a bunch of vitals, then headed to the circuit court building for divorce records.

My cousin married this woman, and evidently, she liked her mom's house. Didn't want to move. Right after their wedding (at her mother's house), they moved in with her mother (at her mother's house), and the mother-in-law proceeded to make his life a living hell.

But the wife wouldn't leave the house. Even after he rented another place for them. Wasn't fancy enough for her, I guess. When he said, "We're married, let's get our own place," she said no, and told him to leave. So he did. Then she tried to use that as ammo against him. "But he left, your honor!" Then she also realized she did not have his income coming in, so sued for money. Unfortunately, by then he had lost his job. '

The divorce became final in 1923, and she got custody of their 2 children, acrimoniously. She remarried. That guy divorced her. She remarried again.

She died in December of 1925 (ALSO in her mom's house, which I guess she inherited when the old bat died!), and when she did, husband #3, instead of returning the children to their father, the man who loved them, deposited them in a Children's Home. :wtf: !!!!

What a prize this woman was. And I hope that fellow #3 is sitting in a very hot place right now. The daughter from this marriage was never found. The family had no idea what happened to her. I finally got her birthdate yesterday and looked up women with her first name in Illinois with that birthdate. Looks like she died in 2006.

How sad.

[fudge stripe cookays]

1. ANOTHER ONE!!

This one arrived from Buffalo on Tuesday.

This man and his first wife and second wife had been listed in a Weaver family history from the end of last century (the 19th, I mean). It just mentioned the wedding dates. Didn't say the first wife died or anything. So I took a chance.

BINGO! And may I just say...HOLY CRAP! There was a reason why the book didn't say what had happened.

Around four years after their marriage (1897), she quit having sex with him and took up with another guy. By 1902, they were living together as husband and wife in various rooming houses around Buffalo, and telling everyone they were married.

In 1904, she had a daughter by this guy! :wow:

This first husband, my cousin, had his sister testify, and also found several rooming house landladies testify that from the picture they were shown, this woman was the one she knew by another name, passing herself off as married, when she wasn't divorced from the first guy yet.

His brother-in-law served her with the petition/summons, and she snottily said, "Why didn't he bring it himself so I could throw him down the stairs?"

He of course was granted the divorce, custody of the children, and the first wife's daughter Gladys was officially declared illegitimate. He was given permission to legally marry again as if she was dead. She was not given that option. I haven't figured out what happened to her yet. But two years after the divorce, this couple was still living outside Buffalo with Gladys, acting as if they'd been married since 1898, and it was their first marriage.

Whoa Nelly, as they say.