Married twice to the same wife?

Question

https://imgur.com/a/Wt3Va4T

Are these both for the same couple? Why might they have married twice? I know that apparently there are 2 Alfred Griffiths in this area, but I doubt that they both married an "Anna Neville." TIA!

Comments

Alfred's multiple marriage records are invisible, you know? He's not even credited with a wife. It would be helpful to have the URL of these marriage records.

Aside from all that, it is not unknown for a couple to marry twice. There are reasons for doing do. It is not a common practice but it is not unknown.

If the records are dated on the same day and from the same office & clerk and etc, one could be considered a duplicate.

There are many instances where the marriage record from a County recorder is not identical to the one registered at the State level. (I'm speaking of American records here)

Occasionally one will discover a divorce occurred between them for whatever reason and then they married again.

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I have this problem on my personal profile, I was married to my 1st wife for 15 years and we divorced on Jan 14, 1971 and then remarried on Jan 14, 1972. I have never tried to address this on my profile. My comment is just for information only. What a problem to have ????  Griffith-516

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Nah, Addison. Not to sweat it. 

I married my 3rd twice. I do not bother to account for it anywhere on any profile.  No one is likely to give a twinkle about it and question it and why would they? 

If you FEEL compelled to explain it -- and it does not need explanation - you make a small succinct note in your profile ("Yeah! We married twice!! You wanna make something out of it??") -- keep it short and sweet -- although I don't see any reason to explain something no one is ramping on about 

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Susan, I really dont sweat it, just part of my life, maybe I will enter a comment sometime.

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Susan, Addison,

The only reason to comment on your own profile (eventually), is to help clear the later confusion for your descendants when they are researching and come across the multiple records and wonder what happened. It'd be great to hear the story from the horse's mouth :) There is a story there, make it interesting.

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Nah, Dennis, my descendants don't care since there wasn't any Fortune or Fame accruing -- and Addison may discover no one ELSE cares about his adventure.  unless it involves blondes and diamonds and red sports cars and mink coats and cruise ships ... you 'd have to ask him about that 

The case in point --- Alfred Griffith -- is interesting and I'm curious as are most of us how this comes about and what was going on but ... neither Anna nor Alfred are up to explaining what was going on ... pity about that ... NOT knowing is like an itch that can't be scratched 

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Awesome that you'd reply Addison! I don't know if you know this, but we are actually 8th cousins 2x removed and Alfred is your first cousin twice removed too!

Edit: Idk what my mind was doing, meant sixth cousin

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Dadijo, I was not aware of either connection, please show me how we are related. I took a quick look at Alfred and do not see any connection.   As the world turns, lol

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Dadijo, I researched our 8th cousin link and found it to be easy to find our relationship link. Thanks for the info, however I am hitting a wall on my cousin link to Alfred Griffith. I will do a lot more searching to find more info. As found by several members there is not much information to go on.

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So sorry Addison! Don't know where my mind is! I meant to write sixth 2x not first 2x. Either I mixed it up or entered the wrong IDs into the calculator

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Ok, thanks, I will follow the sixth 2x, that my help.

Answer 1

They do appear to be for the same couple. The first time on 27 Mar 1916 (Monday) in Seattle, Washington by a Baptist Minister. And the second time on 19 Mar 1919 (Wednesday) at the King County Court House (in Seattle, Washington) by a Justice of the Peace.

Interesting, the Date Filed is left blank on the second one, even though markings on the copy seem to indicate that it was in fact filed.

I wonder if something happened that they somehow lost the record of the first marriage and perhaps needed proof, so quickly did the second?

Maybe the first was a quick wartime bride thing (even though the license was 4 days earlier), and they didn't feel they knew each other well enough, so remarried after he returned from the war?

The first was during the middle of WWI and the second after the war was over. Does Alfred have any military records for that time period?

(just throwing out random facts and guesses to see if it sparks anything for anyone else)

Comments

Agreed that it could possibly have been a quick way to get lost proof of marriage, although it seems odd that they would do this in the same county, unless the first certificate was somehow misfiled and unavailable (then where did it come from now)?

Another possibility is that their first marriage ended in a quick annulment or divorce and they reconciled, making the second JP marriage necessary.

If the license application was available that might shed light as the second application would need to reference any prior marriages and their status. The King County Clerk should have any divorce/annulment records, unless they got a divorce elsewhere, which is possible but unlikely in this timeframe.

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He does have military records from 1917 and 1919. What I found peculiar is that in 1917, a year after his first marriage to Anna, she is listed living in Seattle as his next of kin (he states that he lives in Vancouver), and her relationship to him is only identified as "friend." Makes me wonder what happened in that year.

Answer 2

In Great Britain often people married twice,once in his Parish,

then in her Parish which was nearby.

Comments

I think  the question refers to a US marriage.

Nevertheless, marriages did not take place two parishes in England and Wales

. If the marriage was 'after banns' these would  have  been read on three Sunday's  in both of the couple's home parishes. Quite frequently  banns entries  are recorded as marriages on family search and other indexes.

One specific  exception is in the early years of the 19th C, before 1837 .In this period Roman Catholic marriages weren't legal but there were a few areas of the country where Catholic communities had sprung up mainly because of immigration from Ireland. ( e.g. Liverpool) A couple might be married in the Church of England Church to fulfil the law and then again in the Catholic Church to be married according to their religious beliefs.

After 1837  Catholic and most non conformist marriages were legal and it was also possible to marry in a civil ceremony in a register office.

 Also until quite recently, people of faiths other than Christian or Jewish had to get married in a civil ceremony at a register office because their places of worship weren't registered for marriages.. So for example one of my friends was legally married at the local register office but married in a Hindu ceremony the next day.