Yes sir it was outstanding! Thanks for sharing it. I have studied a family in the 1830's on my Riggin line and saw a lot of this happen in that family. At 10:31 PM 9/23/2007, you wrote: >Mr Royall, >You certainly presented some ineresting info. >Thanks > > >-----Original Message----- >From: Charles Royall >Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 11:01 PM >To: ragan-roots@rootsweb.com >Subject: [RAGAN-ROOTS] Widows, Cousins and Marriages > >An Insight into marriage and divorce > > From the mid 1800's to 1950's divorce was a disgrace and most women >classified thier selves as a "widow" in all records. You will see this a >lot in census records especially. > >I have found this many times when the ex husband was still living and >had remarried. > >If there was a divorce in any family all persons in that family were >forbidden to ever mention it to anyone. > >After the Civil War the men all had to walk home from wherever they were >when the war ended. Many never returned to thier families but stopped >along the way and married a war widow that owned a farm. The wife at >home just assumed that he had been killed in the war. > >The ONLY grounds for divorce was infidelity and that had to be proven in >public court. That did not change until the early 1950's. > >In most cases a woman never sued for divorce. It was usually always the >husband. He would get one of his a buddies to testify that that he (the >buddy) had been engaged with the mans wife in adultery. Saw a lot of >those lies with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears many times. > >It always took a full year to get a divorce before it was final. Plus >they had to be a resident of the county in which it was filed for 1 year >before applying for the divorce. During that time if they ever spent 1 >night together they were considered to be reconciled and had to start >the time thing all over again. > >The only place that was an exception to these rules was Reno NV. Instant >divorces for any reason or no reason. Did not have to be a resident of >the state except for 10 days prior to filing. It was what put Reno on >the map, not gambling as many would think. It was the divorce capitol of >the entire world. There was a tradition that the newly divorced women >would throw thier wedding ring off of the river bridge where there were >folks waiting under the bridge to recover them and sell them. > >Many men never divorced but just moved off and remarried. There was no >way to track down persons then like we can do today. > >Also the marrying of 1st cousins was not unusual either. I have 5 >persons in my Royall line that married other Royall's that were 1st cousins. > >I have a half dozen or so of women in my line some as recent as the >1960's that married the brother of thier husbands. This goes all the way >back to Old Testament Days when such things were expected and demanded. > >In our modern mind it seems strange but it really was not in thier day. >A woman could not live with out a husband. There was no employment for >women or support for thier children, also no insurance either. > >If a person had no support they were committed to the county poor farm >as an inmate and could not leave it. They were worked as slave labor in >the fields of the farm. They stayed there until they died, then they >were buried on the poor farm property in unmarked graves. > >Also another divorce oddity, if a man was ordered to pay alimony in any >state all he had to do to get out of it was to move to Texas. He did not >have to pay it in Texas as it was illegal there and Texas would not send >him back for trial to another state. In fact the local Police would go >and warn the guy to not leave Texas because a arrest warrant had been >issued for non payment of alimony. > >Also the couple must mail in the marriage certificate after the >marriage. The county would record it then mail it back to them. If the >man never mailed it in, it was never recorded and the "wife" THOUGHT >they were married, when in fact they were not, even though she had a >marriage certificate that said so. > >There are still some main stream churches that recognize divorce only on >grounds of adultery. > >Rev Fr. Charlie Royall >A life long Historian of 70 years. > > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >RAGAN-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without >the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >RAGAN-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without >the quotes in the subject and the body of the message