Turn of the century religious do's and don'ts??

[Lynnette]

Hi, I'm not sure whether this is the right place to post this, or whether it is okay for me to post this, all not sure what to call it... but, I have been trying to trace one of my 'dream people', and hit a couple of confusing stumbling blocks I hoped someone on this forum might be able to help me out with.

Basically, I found the parents of the girl I am trying to twice listed as married on 2 consecutive censuses - 1910 and 1920. After that, they seem to disappear, although I have found a death record, and several army service records for the father. I have also found her mother seemingly under a different surname - both whilst living with and not living with her parents - both of whom have completely different surnames again on my particular parents' marriage record! But then today, I found another record for the father that says he has been twice divorced.. but, his wife, or at least the one I'm after, came from a very Jewish family (her father was a Rabbi).

This is all very well, but I sort of assumed divorce was 1, well, not looked upon too favourably at that period of time, and 2, not really considered amongst religious families. Am I being totally wrong here? And suppose they had actually divorced, would the child have stayed with the mother or the father, since I had it in my mind that father's were favoured over mothers at that time, too. And supposing her mother also married again, whose name would she marry under - her maiden name or her first married name?

Sorry, lots of questions, I know. Hopefully someone can help me : angel

 

[Leesea]

Hi, lynnette


I have a question and not much help I'm afraid. Are you referring to the United States censuses? It may be that they are listed under some weird spelling or nic name for the 1930 census. Some sites only have partial 1930 censuses. Hopefully you will find more next year as the 1940 will be released.


I have come across many instances in America in which women who were previously married kept that married name and got married again with that name although I don't recall ever hearing a fast rule about that. My Danish great grandmother used her family name for both of her marriages. So maybe in other countries they did not go by the husband's name.

 

[Shiftkitty]

Divorce was not as frowned upon as some people think. We have a problem of looking at the Victorian age through filters of white-washing, progressivism, and other ways of tidying up the past into what we want versus what it was. Census takers didn't always spell names correctly, and not many even thought to ask. My husband is tracing his family tree and has had to use surrounding documentation to verify the identities of several people. Kovalewski, Kovalevski, Kovalewsky, Kovalevsky, and Stan, Stanislaus, Stanislao, Stanley, Stanis, it can become one big misleading trail. Add to that naming conventions. There are three John Allens in a row in his family, and census takers didn't mark down Sr, Jr, or "the Third". Some people swapped first names and middle names, some had professional names, etc. It's quite a quest!


Good luck!

 

[Totoro]

that's a good point, US records were very inaccurate from back then. in my own genealogy, i've had to use secondary info such as height and things like that to assist in record searching.

 

[Lynnette]

Thank you for your replies. I know, as you suggest that variations on spelling are a good place to start, but still I have not found anything.


I wonder if you are right about divorce and etc perhaps not being such a great deal back then. Maybe we do have a clouded, nostalgic view of it. At any rate, her father appears from the records I have found, to have been divorced twice, so he obviously had no conundrums! It's just unfortunate that while I have this information about him, I have found nothing else about his daughter - the actual person I was looking for... I know one shouldn't judge too, or generalise religious connotations, but if I could find out general practices, it might possibly help me know if she was with her father or her mother, and how in fact I might find said mother?!

 

[KnickKnack]

I know it's a bit late to chime in on the topic, but I was wondering if you checked with a synagogue in the area they lived in for records. I was thinking that their records may be more detailed/accurate than the census, and offer more info in general.