Coincidences – I Love Trove

After all this skyping Mum and Dad and stimulating their memories, I got onto Trove digitised newspapers to check out a few things they talked about. Well, one thing led to another, and almost a week later …

I got distracted by a divorce case – a really juicy one, one that stretched over a couple of years!

I thought I had already found the juiciest divorce case a year or so ago – that of my 2 great grandfather and his first wife (probably his only wife as I can’t find any evidence of the next marriage). This case was Terry vs Terry and went for five days in May 1864. All the ‘gory’ details were published in The Argus, including witness statements from publicans about calling him to come and get his drunk wife who was dancing on the tables and ‘entertaining’ men. This case set a precedent as my 2g grandfather was wealthy and it was found that there was no case for any claim by the wife for alimony.

So, not so surprising when I found another case, Lewis vs Lewis in 1868-9 that referenced this finding, but surprising when I read further and found who it was!

It was my 2g grandmother’s brother, and his divorce from his first wife. Similar situation, wealthy prominent man, drunken wife but this time about five co-respondents, all men she had had affairs with. And again, all the ‘gory’ details published in full in The Argus.

Confused how this all fits together – my Mum and Dad were, probably still are – Dad just said “make sure everyone knows it’s your mum’s side not mine”!

The 1864 case was Alfred TERRY, my grandfather’s maternal side.

The 1868-9 case was Robert Edward LEWIS brother of Louisa LEWIS, the same grandfather’s paternal side.

The daughter of Alfred Terry, by the second ‘wife’, married the nephew of Robert Lewis in 1905. These two court cases happened before either of them were born.

Not one of the divorced couples - a link between them -
my great grandparents,
Constance (nee TERRY) and Lewis GARRETT

Don’t you just love Trove newspapers?

As a younger couple