This is an index of 253,123 records that typically include the name of the husband, the name of the wife, the name of the correspondent, and the year of the divorce.

The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 established the principle of “no-fault” divorce in England and Wales, allowing couples to obtain a divorce on the grounds of “irretrievable breakdown.” Prior to this act, couples could only obtain a divorce through private acts of Parliament or by proving adultery, cruelty, or desertion.

Between 1858 and 1937, the divorce rate in England and Wales steadily increased. 

After the Divorce Court (Procedure) Act of 1937 established the Divorce Court and set out the procedures for obtaining a divorce the number jumped dramatically.

Ancestry has these records to 1918 with images of the original court proceedings. Findmypast has an index collection to 1903.

Tom Lehrer Puts His Songs into the Public Domain & Makes Them Free to Download (for a Limited Time)

Catching up with the frequent updates to this website dedicated to the men and women of the Royal Canadian Navy and the ships they lived and served in.

20 Dec 2022 – HMCS CORNWALLIS – New Entry course photo for Nootka Division 1/51 has been added

20 Dec 2022 – Documents and Manuals – Souvenir of the Commonwealth and Empire Contingents At The Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II June 2nd, 1953 has been added

18 Dec 2022 – HMCS WOLF – Patrol Reports Dec 1941 – Jun 1944 from the ship’s file held at the LAC have been added to her page

18 Dec 2022 – HMCS DUNDAS – Reports of Proceedings Apr 1942 – Sep 1942 from the ship’s file held at the LAC have been added to her page

16 Dec 2022 – Documents and Manuals – Entertainment Programme for Commonwealth and Colonial Contingents at the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has been added.

The whole site is worth browsing for Royal Canadian Navy, and some other navy resources.

 

 

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Jingle Bells

Not worth it?
Local writer Dan Gardner’s PastPresentFuture newsletter/blog,  available through substack, is one I subscribe to — for free! His Christmas Potpourri includes upfront  the surprising

“Substack sets a minimum price for paid subscriptions, which the writers cannot set lower. I’m Canadian and in Canada it is, I think, CDN$7 a month. I can see why they do that. But allow me an admission against interest (as lawyers say): At $7 a month, people are paying as much or more than the cost of a subscription to a major magazine. With editors. And staff writers. And illustrators. And paper. I think highly of myself but I don’t think the newsletter I work on part-time with a team that consists of me and my dog is remotely equivalent to a major magazine.”

That made me feel better about not having a paid subscription. Perhaps I can further salve my consious by mentioning his forthcoming book How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between, coauthored with Bent Flyvbjerg.

ChatGPT
Following on my post What Are The Attributes of a Good Genealogist, that demonstrated what ChatGPT can do, Dan Gardner’s Christmas Potpourri item included recommended reading by Ethan Mollick and Gary Marcus. Beware, there’s lots there and they do get pretty well into the weeds.

5 senses? In fact, architects say there are 7 ways we perceive our environments

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous,  Brenda Turner, Craig Milne, gail benjafield,  Glenn W., Helen Whyte, lesley, Pat Laffey, Teresa.

Plus

pic.twitter.com/MxThmXpFav

— Pam Ayres MBE (@PamAyres) December 20, 2022

1939 Register of England & Wales

About 65,000 new records have passed the required 100-year mark and have been unredacted in this latest rolling release.

FMP holds the most up-to-date version of the 1939 Register, which dates to 29 September 1939.

Ireland: Licences to Keep Arms, 1832-1836

A new collection from a parliamentary report includes those who were granted a licence to bear a weapon (either a firearm or a sword) by their local magistrate. The records normally include a name, their residence, brief details of the licence, and the magistrate. Check the original image for additional details on the wepons, such as “Two guns, one pistol and one bayonet”, “One gun”, “One single-barrelled fowling-piece.”

Newspapers

Wow!  600,000 new pages have been added this week, comprising of 19 new titles and 152 updated titles.

More than 185,000 new Lloyd George Domesday land tax records have been added by TheGenealogist to its Landowner and Occupier records. Consisting of records from the counties of Berkshire and the Buckinghamshire, this release provides researchers with the ability to discover owners and occupiers of property in the period 1910 to 1915.

Covering an area of over 800 square miles, researchers can use these records to see the size, state of repair and value of the house in which their ancestors had been the landlord of, or had lived in.

TheGenealogist has linked all the records to the large scale Ordnance Survey maps that were used at the time.These detailed maps show each property plotted on detailed mapping that can be viewed with TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™ tool. This interface will show the same coordinates on a variety of modern and historical maps. Using this allows house or family historians to see how the area they are researching may have changed over time and with it to then explore their ancestors’ locality.

• Details of Individual properties can be found in these Lloyd George Domesday records
• Records are linked to extremely detailed maps used in 1910-1915 and viewable on the powerful Map Explorer™
• Ability to fully search the records by a person’s name, county, parish and street
• The Ordnance Survey maps zoom down to show individual properties
• Georeferenced to a modern street map or satellite map underlay the researcher can more clearly understand what the area looks like today

Areas covered in this release include:

Aldermaston, Aldworth, Amersham, Arborfield, Ardington, Ashampstead, Ashley Green, Barkham, Basildon, Beaconsfield, Beech Hill, Beedon, Beenham, Binfield, Bisham, Bledlow, Blewbury, Boveney, Boxford, Bradenham, Bradfield, Bray, Brightwalton, Brimpton, Buckland, Bucklebury, Burghfield, Burnham, Catmore, Caversham, Chaddleworth, Chalfont St Giles, Chalfont St Peter, Challow (East and West), Charlton, Chenies, Chepping Wycombe, Chesham, Chieveley, Childrey, Chilton, Cholesbury, Clewer Within, Clewer Without, Cold Ash, Compton, Cookham, Crowthorne, Datchet, Denchworth, Denham, Donnington, Earley, East Garston, East Ilsley, East Lockinge, East Shefford, Easthampstead, Ellesborough, Enborne, Englefield, Eton, Farnborough, Farnham Royal, Fawley, Fawley, Fawley, Finchhampstead, Fingest, Frilsham, Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Goosey, Grazeley, Great Coxwell, Great Missenden, Greenham, Grove, Hambleden, Hampden (Great and Little), Hampstead Marshall, Hampstead Norris, Hanney (East and West), Harwell, Hawridge, Hedgerley, Hedsor, Hendred (East and West), High Wycombe, Hitcham, Horsenden, Horton, Hungerford, Hurley, Ibstone, Ilmer, Inkpen, Iver, Kimble (Great and Little), Kintbury, Lambourn, Langley, Leckhampstead, Lee, Letcombe Bassett, Letcombe Regis, Little Marlow, Little Missenden, Maidenhead, Marlow, Medmenham, Midgham, Mortimer, New Windsor, Newbury, Newland, Old Windsor, Pangbourne, Peasemore, Penn, Princes Risborough, Remenham, Ruscombe, Sandhurst, Saunderton, Shaw, Shinfield, Shottesbrook, Slough, Slough, Sparsholt, Speen, St Giles, St Lawrence, St Mary, St Nicholas Hurst, Stanford Dingley, Streatley, Sunningdale, Sunninghill, Swallowfield, Taplow, Thatcham, Theale, Tilehurst, Towersey, Turville, Twyford, Upton, Waltham St Lawrence, Wantage, Warfield, Wargrave, Welford, West Ilsley, West Shefford, West Woodhay, White Waltham, Winkfield, Winnersh, Winterbourne, Wokingham, Wooburn, Woolhampton & Yattendon

Read TheGenealogist’s article: To the Cottage Born https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2022/to-the-cottage-born-1645/