Using Divorce Records For Genealogy Research

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When you think about genealogy resources, the first vital records that come to mind are probably birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage licenses. These three resources still comprise the bulk of genealogical resources and are easier to find online. However, divorce decrees are a fourth type of record that can reveal lots of new information about your ancestors.

divorce records are a fairly recent phenomenon, because, prior to the 1900s, divorces were uncommon and often even illegal. As views about the family have changed over the years to accept divorces as an often unavoidable part of life, divorce records have proliferated and become one more weapon in the genealogy researcher’s arsenal.

Divorce decrees can be just as valuable as marriage licenses and just as available. They can also share a handy characteristic with death certificates: divorce records for a marriage will be more recent than the marriage license, making them less likely to have been lost over the years.

The easiest vital records to find online are death certificates. This makes death certificates the natural place to start any genealogy research. Other vital records may require mail or in-person contact with the individual counties in which you are searching. When you contact the county to find birth certificates and marriage licenses, make sure to look for divorces as well.

Or, you can also use online Public records databases to ease your search. Divorce records will all contain the names of both husband and wife, the date of their marriage, and the date of their divorce. They may also contain the couple’s residence at the time of the divorce, the birth dates and names of their children, property held by the couple, their ages or birth dates, and sometimes even the reason they divorced.

As you can see, divorce records can sometimes reveal more about a couple than those for their marriage. When you are searching for vital records to complete your family tree, do not neglect divorces, because they are also an important part of your family’s history. Modern families are often comprised of children of different parents as the result of divorces.

Genealogy must keep track of divorces to make sure that ancestors and descendants from different marriages are recognized and included in our family trees.

Search for public divorce records.

Next Post: What Is Included In A Public Divorce Record?

Filed Under: Divorce
Tagged: Divorce Records, genealogy, marriage license
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