Looking for divorce records for Mahlon Ortman Davis and Marian Ellen Sparks Davis in Indiana around
I have searched newspapers in Rush county and close areas with no results. I did notice that Marian's uncle was a judge in the area and denied a lot of divorces back then so thought maybe they kept it out of the papers. Other than newspapers is there a place to find out if he really was divorced after abandoning the family?
Answers
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@JoanFaulkner1 JoanFaulkner1
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Joan
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Due to the nature of your 'Question ...
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I am "Moving" this 'Question' of yours, in the 'Group' being "How to Use FamilySearch Community", in this "Community.FamilySearch" Forum, to the 'Group' being "General Questions", in the Forum; so that, the members of that group can answer/assist you.
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That Group is "Public", which you can join, if you wish.
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As, that 'Group' being "How to Use FamilySearch Community" relates to HOW to USE the "FamilySearch.Community" Forum", rather than for research help/assistance.
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And ...
As an aside ...
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I am ALSO "Tagging" this 'Question' of yours in to two (x2) specific 'Groups' in the Forum being:
(1) "Midwest" ... [ which includes: Indiana ]; and,
(2) "United States Genealogy Research",
in the hope that, the members of those groups may be able to answer/assist you.
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Both, those Groups, are ALSO "Public", which you can join, if you wish.
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Brett
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@United States Genealogy Research
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Thank you. I have been looking for years and this might help. Ancestry was no help at all.
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Hi Joan,
Unfortunately, divorce documents are rarely available online but are typically held by the county recorder. Here is a link for the Rush County recorders office-
https://www.brbpub.com/indiana/rush/
Going directly to the source is the best place to start.
Good luck with your search.
Will
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Thank you for your help. This website seems to only like people who aren't dead and didn't have any records tor either my grandmother or her cheating husband.
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@JoanFaulkner1 JoanFaulkner1 what city, state, and time period are you searching for ? also would be helpful if you could post a link to this person in your fsft to make it easier for the volunteers to research. you could try calling the county courts where the divorce took place and ask them if they have the record? also can try searching the available court records at familysearch
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The last place they lived together was Elkhart, Indiana. I would think 1926 would be the year because he remarried 1 Aug 1927 and my grandmother and mother were in Seattle. Is the link the numbers assigned to them. Mahlon Ortman Davis M19L-8NR Marian Ellen Sparks Davis L5Y5-Q8V married 20 July 1921. He married Cora Beatrice StaufferLK4L-FJN
1 August 1927. Is this the information you need? I looked through some Rush County records to no avail and will see if I can get records. I'm not sure why divorce records are harder to get than birth records.
Since he fathered two daughters 1 month apart while married to my grandmother I just wonder if he ever got divorced. Thank you for your help.
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I found 2 marriage index sources (which I attached to Mahlon and his second wife Beatrice for you). Those 2 sources, the Find a grave photo of their headstone (with the attached obituary), and Mahlon's WWII draft registration papers all seem to confirm that he and Beatrice were in fact married. Although no proof is provided in the obituary on the Find a Grave memorial supporting the statement that Mahlon and Marian were divorced, since both first an second marriages for Mahlon were performed in Indiana in the 1920's, we can safely assume that there was a divorce date of "before August 1927" since that is when his 2nd marriage occurred (and joining in a second marriage while still married to another person was illegal at that time).
If it were me, I would go ahead and add a Divorce event to Mahlon and Marian's Couple Relationship with a date of "before August 1927" based on the above reasoning since it appears rather obvious from the records that it did occur.
However, I suspect that you can find evidence of the divorce in the source images for his marriage to Beatrice since it would very likely include the marriage license information that Mahlon "had been married once before and was a divorced man" or some-such. The only problem is that you can only access those images with that extra information from a Family History Center at this time.
Actual Divorce records are not often viewed as "Vitals" like birth records are so they do tend to be more difficult to find. Also, we are talking about records from less than 99 years ago. records for those divorce decrees may not have been released publicly yet.
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This might be of help. Yes, most, but not all Family History Centers are closed at this time. Have you tried to sit in the parking lot and log on to their website. I have been able to do this with success. Some Centers are open with limited hours. Worth a try.
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