Genealogy Chat

I recently read my great grandfather's death certificate. It says that his widow A. Walker was present at his death. This was news to me as we only previously knew of his frist marriage to Beatrice Blount. They split in 1925 although I do not know if they officially divorced or not. She went to South Africa and he remaining in Portsmouth, Hampshire. I don't know what happened to him then untill he died in 1952 in Chatham, Kent. I can't seem to find any record of the marriage. Can anyone help? Thanks for your time reading this.

its quite likely they never married. My gr grandmother did the same. Her first husband died in 1876, she took up with a JOhn Dine and called herself Hannah Dine but there was no marriage.

Opps! His name was William David Walker. That might help.

Did he have money, because if he didn't, it's unlikely that they got divorced as it was difficult and expensive. Lots of couples between the wars split up and just lived with the second partner as if they were married. We have this in our family. Kath. x

Did he leave a will by any chance? Because if he had still been married to the first wife she might have been entitled to his estate. Unless he made a will out to A Walker!

I dont think he had a lot of money so sadly you are probably right. I say sadly because it is likely that I will never know her name and whther or not they had any children...

One more suggestion because this worked a treat for me: Send a letter to the local newspaper where he died in 1952 Chatham, and ask if anyone in the area remembers him and his 'wife'. If you have his last address that would be helpful I did it for the the Brighton area and I had two excellent responses!

Good idea Julie. I don't know why I didn't think to suggest this as it worked for me. I sent a letter to the newspaper that printed an obituary for my grandfather when I was looking for his daughter by his second marriage. (Hastings library staff helped me by finding the obituary and the fact that he had a daughter from electoral registers - can't thank them enough). Her sister-in-law saw the message and got in touch by email, and I am now in contact by letter with my grandfather's daughter (she doesn't have a computer). The letter was published within a week of me writing and I had the email on the some night as publication. Kath. x

If you do find anything which would have involved baptism/marriage/funeral in the Medway area, don't forget the Medway CityArk site has images from a lot of the parish registers for the area - they're freely available for non-commercial use. Christine

Thanks everyone for your help on this. I will take the following steps to try to find out more about his second family: 1) Keep searching for the marriage entry 2) Search for his obituary in Chatham newspapers 3) Write to the newspapers in Chatham where he lived to see if anyone has heard of him. 4) Try to find info on his pension as this may list any dependants Thanks again :-)

I found her! I found a letter from my grandfather to his sister about it. Her name before the marriage was Mrs. Ada Wells. In the letter it said that they were going to get married. The date then was 1950. He died in 1952 so it didn't last long... I could not find the marriage in the bmd but sent of for the certificate anyway. I have not heard back yet -probably because of the postal strike. Thanks for all your help.

They married in the June qtr 1950 William D Walker to Ada E Wells Maidstone 5b 1379. In case they come back and cant find it . Shirley