--part1_c2.72c8ae6.27bea373_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit After seeing a posting regarding where to find Divorce records I came across the following book at the library. It contains a list of persons involved in separations or divorces with useful information to a researcher for some of them. All entries have a date and county along with where it was published. Some have additional information such as maiden names, marriage dates, reasons, etc. I do not have a copy of this book but thought the following might be of use to someone. >From the book entitled Divorces and Separations in Missouri 1808-1853 compiled by Lois Stanley, George F. Wilson, and Maryhelen Wilson. "Divorce was not common in Missouri in the early 1800s. But there is considerable evidence that many couples found life together intolerable, at least at times. From earliest days newspapers carried plaintive 'my wife having left my bed and board' notices filed by indignant husbands. The deserted wife seldom took this means of showing dissatisfaction. She waited the required period and sued for divorce. Notices of separation can only be found in newspapers, but there are two other sources for divorce records: the circuit courts, where one existed, and the State Legislature of Missouri, which acted on divorce cases in the wide areas where no circuit courts sat. Actually, many of these cases also appeared in the newspapers, since many times a partner in a divorce case could not be found and it was necessary to notify him via the press. It is possible to go through a 10-year period in one of the early circuit courts and not find a single divorce action. But there may be divorces in some of those early records which are not included in the records which follow. The causes for divorce were limited -- desertion, adultery, habitual drunkenness were the most common. They were occasionally combined, as in one of the earliest and most sensational cases, that of General William Montgomery versus his wife Nancy. Separations shown here apparently seldom resulted in a divorce. But whether the couples reconciled, or the injured party left the state, or neither bothered to dissolve the marriage legally, cannot easily be determined. Separations do, however, provide clues which a researcher might otherwise miss. They offer an explanation as to why a couple married for years might have only one child, or widely-spaced offspring; why children were brought up by other relatives; why a man might cut off wife, child, or children in his will, with no explanation. Divorce records, too, can be valuable. The shadow of such an old scandal has darkened many a researcher's path. Proof that a divorce occurred has solved some very knotty problems. We think of 'Women's Lib' as a product of our own time. But these records show that Missouri women have been far more liberated than we realized, and for a very long time! Note: a few of these records have appeared in the St. Louis Genealogical Society Quarterly." --part1_c