[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] divorce

[AlbertMuth at aol.com]

I would say no, divorce was not common.  When anyone marries, his/her
social status is clearly indicated in the record: single, widowed, divorced.
Unwed mothers are also clearly designated.

Divorce records for Lutherans in Russian Poland do not appear in the 
LDS catalog.  Marginal notes in some marriage records show that the 
marriage ended in divorce, a year is given, and the religious court (?) 
is usually Plock.  This is not to say that each parish did not maintain 
separate records of their divorced couples.  In one early Plock film, I 
remember seeing a separate section (in addition to the usual births, 
marriages, and deaths) where, in one year, three divorces were 
recorded.

Does this mean that every parish maintained a separate yearly book
for divorces?  Perhaps, but judging by what I see in the online catalog
of the Polish archives http://baza.archiwa.gov.pl/sezam/pradziad.eng.php
this would be minimal.  Only a handful of places are shown.

Desertion seems to be as common, perhaps more so.  In my 
transcriptions, I do not usually record spouse desertions.  There is 
a phrase (I am writing from memory, so the Polish may be imperfect): 
z pobyle niewiadomego, which roughly translated, means "whereabouts 
unknown".  The phrase may be used to refer to a parent of a bride/
bridegroom, or of a married woman who has a child by some other 
man (whose name is seldom given). In the latter case, it often states 
how long the absent husband has been gone.

One case that occurs somewhat frequently is that of the married woman
whose husband is off serving in the Russian army.   For whatever reason,
"while the cat is away, the mouse will play..." and, oops, there's a baby.
I have often wondered what the end to this story might be.

If you see in the Pedigree Database that one individual remarries, 
yet the deathdate of the previous spouse is not given, this probably 
*ONLY* means that the death records have not been extracted.  Or, 
if they were, that (1) the person may have died somewhere else 
while on a visit, or (2) the death was recorded in a Catholic parish, 
rather than the Lutheran one, or vice-versa.  Some parishes record 
the death date of a deceased spouse when the widower or widow 
remarries, but many do not.  Most record the name of a deceased 
spouse, but not all do.

In any case, if you have questions about the film source for exact
dates found in the Pedigree Database (whose source is SGGEE001,
SGGEE002, etc), you can contact databases at sggee.org
and they can give the exact film reference.  When SGGEE sends
members a gedcom with database information on their families, the
gedcom *does* include source information of this sort for all individuals.
To find it, you need to know the ins and outs of your genealogy software.
If you don't seem to find any source information on 19th century dates, 
ask yourself:  how old is my software?

Al Muth