{"id":2505,"date":"2012-12-17T17:14:32","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T17:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=2505"},"modified":"2021-04-21T11:06:26","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:06:26","slug":"how-to-find-your-ancestors-divorce-records-in-the-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/how-to-find-your-ancestors-divorce-records-in-the-newspaper.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Find Your Ancestor\u2019s Divorce Records in the Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.<\/span>\u201d In this guest blog post, Gena describes how old newspaper articles about your ancestor\u2019s divorce can provide valuable family history information to help with your genealogical searches.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am always surprised when people assume life was so much better generations ago. After all, there was no divorce, drunkenness, or crime, right? Well the great thing about newspapers is that they document all of life: the good, the bad and the ugly. And yes, that ugly included events happening in the \u201cgood old days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Need proof that yesteryear wasn\u2019t so grand all the time? As long as there has been marriage, some couples have regretted the day they said \u201cI do\u201d and looked for ways to sever that tie. One way to examine American divorce statistics is through U.S. census data. The following newspaper article provides statistics for marriages and divorces based on U.S. census data for the years 1887-1906. In that 20-year period there were 12,832,014 marriages and 945,625 divorces.<\/p>\n

\"Startling<\/a>
Morning Olympian (Olympia, Washington), 22 December 1908, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Divorces are recorded in several ways in the newspaper, providing useful clues for further genealogy research. Some examples of divorce records that you can find in newspapers include notices to an absent party in the legal advertisements section, short articles about the outcome of a divorce trial along with other court actions, or even a longer article with detailed descriptions of the allegations, the trial, and the outcome.<\/p>\n

The following old news article about divorces heard in the Cuyahoga County (Ohio) court makes it obvious that \u201cthe divorce business is on the increase\u201d because of some apparent reasons, such as domestic violence and adultery. Consider the treatment of this unhappy woman: \u201cA long story of extreme cruelty was related by Mrs. Caroline Pavlikofsky as a ground for divorce from Gotlieb Pavlikofsky.\u201d It\u2019s reported that in one year of marriage he had \u201cfrequently beaten her\u2026drove her out of the house, threw a burning lamp at her, threatened to beat her brains out with a heavy pan, and such things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Divorce<\/a>
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 20 May 1893, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A boon to genealogists are the newspaper articles that list the full names of all the parties involved in divorce court cases, including the judge.<\/p>\n

\"20<\/a>
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas), 4 February 1908, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once a genealogy researcher finds mention of their ancestor\u2019s divorce in the newspaper they should then search the Family History Library Catalog<\/a> or consult with the relevant county\u2019s courthouse to find additional divorce records. If you have never researched court records I recommend studying the book Courthouse Research for Family Historians: Your Guide to Genealogical Treasures<\/em> by Christine Rose<\/a>, as well as The Researcher\u2019s Guide to American Genealogy<\/em> by Val D. Greenwood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In some cases you may get much more than just confirmation of your ancestor\u2019s divorce from the newspaper. In the old divorce article example below you also get some additional information and perhaps motives. Historical newspaper articles about divorce cases can also include other important data like marriage date, some possible motivations to marry, and the complaints against the spouse.<\/p>\n

\"Divorce<\/a>
St. Louis Republic (St. Louis, Missouri), 25 June 1889, page 12<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not everyone lived happily ever after. Divorce in your ancestor\u2019s time period was a reality just as it is now. Search newspapers for references throughout your ancestor\u2019s life in your genealogy research and you might be surprised by what you find out about your family history.<\/p>\n

<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d In this guest blog post, Gena describes how old newspaper articles about your ancestor\u2019s divorce can provide valuable family history information to help with your genealogical searches. I am always surprised when people assume life was so much better generations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[5280,2877,1142,2879,5292,5293,2132,2057,2056,2876,2881,1129,1658,2233,2878,465,2191,5354,5355,22,5366,2020,27,539,1091,5370,5426,5430,2880],"class_list":["post-2505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-book","tag-caroline-pavlikofsky","tag-census","tag-christine-rose","tag-court","tag-courthouse","tag-cuyahoga-county","tag-divorce-announcements","tag-divorce-notices","tag-divorce-statistics","tag-divorces","tag-family","tag-family-history-2","tag-family-research","tag-gotlieb-pavlikofsky","tag-historical-newspapers","tag-history","tag-life","tag-long","tag-marriage","tag-news","tag-newspaper-archives","tag-newspapers","tag-oh","tag-ohio","tag-people","tag-records","tag-research","tag-val-d-greenwood"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70379,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505\/revisions\/70379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}