----- Original Message ----- From: "Margie Daniels" <margie@majorinternet.net> To: <GAMACON-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2001 9:18 PM Subject: [GAMACON] Divorce in Georgia > The Georgia legislature, without any real precedent, granted Georgia's first > divorce in 1793. The state constitution of 1798 required a divorce law to > be enacted and the first in a series of such legislation was passed on Dec. > 1, 1802. Divorces under these early acts were tried before local Ga. Co. > superior courts and if approved by jury there, still had to be approved > individually by the Ga. Legislature. Beginning with act of Dec. 5, 1806, in > total divorces" the party whose improper or criminal conduct shall authorize > such divorce, shall not be permitted to marry again during the life of the > other party: or would be guilty of bigamy. Eventually the legislature > became swamped with petitions for final divorces. With the constitutional > amendment of 1833 the legislature attempted to get out to the divorce > situation by allowing divorces to be granted after approval by 2 local > superior court juries. > > The divorce related petitions continued to appear before the legislature, > however. Many of the guilty parties in the divorces petitioned for the > right to remarry legally and many married women requested the right to own > property or to conduct business without divorcing their husbands. An act of > Oct. 5 1868 removed all penalties and restrictions imposed by divorces and > the State Constitution of 1868 supposedly made Ga. the first state to extend > feme sole to all of the state's married women. > > To access these records check with the Georgia Department of Archives. > > > ==== GAMACON Mailing List ==== > Be sure to check the surrounding counties and also those Alabama Counties across the river. Many moved beteen the two states. > >