Divorce Records: Finding Marriages That Ended
Divorce was more common in the past than many families admit, and divorce files can be rich in detail. Where divorce records are kept, how to find them, and what else to check.
Family stories sometimes skip over divorces, but they happened, more often than many people assume. A great-grandmother listed as "widowed" in a census may have been divorced, or simply separated. A husband who vanishes from the records may have left. Divorce records can explain those gaps, and the case files often include testimony full of names, dates, places and family details.
How divorce worked in the past
- In the colonial period and early republic, divorce was rare and difficult. In some states, it required a special act of the state legislature; look in legislative petitions and session laws.
- Through the 1800s, most states moved divorce into the courts, usually the county court of general jurisdiction (often called circuit, superior, district or chancery court, depending on the state).
- Grounds were limited and varied by state: commonly adultery, desertion (often after a set number of years), cruelty, drunkenness or nonsupport. Some states were much easier than others, and people sometimes moved temporarily to get a divorce.
Where to find divorce records
Court records
The heart of a divorce record is the court case file, held by the clerk of the court where the divorce was granted. Look for:
- Court indexes by plaintiff and defendant
- Docket books and minute books, summarizing each case
- The case file, with the petition, answers, testimony, and the final decree
Older county court records may have moved to the state archives. Check the FamilySearch catalog under the county's "Court records" for microfilmed or digitized books. See Mastering the FamilySearch Catalog.
State divorce indexes
Many states began keeping statewide divorce indexes or certificates in the 20th century, often through the vital records office. Some are searchable online. Access to recent divorces may be restricted.
Legislative records
For early divorces granted by legislatures, search published session laws and the legislature's petitions, often held by state archives.
What divorce files can reveal
- Date and place of the marriage
- Names and ages of children, and who received custody
- The wife's maiden name, sometimes restored in the decree
- Property owned, and where the couple lived
- Testimony from relatives and neighbors describing the family's life
- Where the absent spouse went, in desertion cases
Other clues to a divorce
- Census marital status: from 1880 on, "D" for divorced appears in the census. But many divorced people reported themselves as widowed, which was more socially acceptable.
- Newspapers: notices of divorce suits, and legal notices published when the defendant couldn't be found, which often name the missing spouse's last known location. Some husbands also published notices refusing to pay a wife's debts after a separation.
- Remarriage records that describe a person as divorced.
- Deeds, where a divorced wife no longer signs to release her dower.
- Pension and probate files, where a former spouse's claim had to be addressed.
Separation without divorce
Many couples simply separated without ever going to court, especially when divorce was expensive or socially unacceptable. A husband might go west and start a new family; a wife might return to her parents. In these cases, look for the spouses in separate households in the census, and watch for bigamy, which was not unheard of. See Where Did My Ancestor Go?