Where can I get NYS divorce and marriage records for around 1860?

Question

My 2nd great grandfather, William R. Scriven was married to a Eudora Phinette (Moon), and then he married (between 1865 and 1870) Elizabeth Saunders. The divorce happened between the1860 US Census and the 1865 NYS Census. I don't know the date of either marriage, but the families belonged to a church group named Seventh Day Baptists, which was very strong in the little towns in Rensselaer County, NY. When I contacted the present pastor, he gave me nothing. I got the impression that divorce was an exceptional event back in the mid 1800s.

Phinette, as she is called in all the records, remarried a man named Hiland A. Main, and they were interred in the same plot in Berlin, NY. I'm still not sure whether my great grandfather, Frederick R. Scriven, was the son of William or Hiland Main, who eventually married Phinette. Fred's marriage record (Vermont Vitals)lists "Phinnette" as his mother. I'd like to corroborate that information but more importantly, I'd like to see a divorce record but I have no idea where to look. I know they're not on line.

Comments

Update:

I took a Y-DNA test with Family Tree in 2019 that matched me with only Mains and no Scrivens. That, too me, is near conclusive proof that the live-in farm worker, Hiland A Main, was my 2nd g. grandfather. The fact that he married her a few years after the Civil War helps that argument--and suggests that their attraction was more than plain ol' adultery.

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I don't believe NY began to record vital statistics of births, deaths, marriages until the 1880's.  I find getting public records from NYC is much easier than dealing with the state of New York.  The state charges excessive fees, and ties its records up in red tape.  It is true that until recent times divorce was uncommon for numerous reasons. Early death was more common than divorce.  Until the 1950's, divorce in New York was exceptionally difficult to win.  To prove adultery, you needed witnesses who would swear that both parties were between the sheets.  Even when you did win divorce, there was a waiting period of at least one year before it would take legal effect. My grandfather married my grandmother who was a newly freed divorcee, and rather than wait out her waiting period, they eloped to Connecticut where they were married with little fuss.

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Thanks, Jim. I guess love will find a way, right?

Answer 1

As a native of New York, I can assure you that they are impossible to deal with.  I believe that they will only give that information out if you can prove to their satisfaction (which is probably never achievable) that you are a direct ancestor or descendant of the person.  After that, they'll charge you an arm, a leg, and your first born child and then you'll wait a month or more for them to get up to doing it.  After all that, they might tell you only that they don't have the record, but they won't give you a refund of the fee you already paid.

I wish you luck!

Comments

That's bad news, but not unexpected. I contacted the town cleark and she referred me to the local library with an email that didn't work! It's too bad that they don't enable people to research their archives. From what I see, they have farmed out the process to an outside company who expects to make money from it, absolving themselves from responsibility.

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I'm terribly sorry to have had to tell you that, Bob.

I once had the experience of needing an original certified copy of my birth certificate as a condition for employment.  The company did not consider the copy I had as acceptable.  I went IN PERSON to 2 different offices, one in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan (they sent me on a scavenger hunt - each one said I needed to go to the other one).  At each office I had a wait of over an hour before I got to see someone.  When I finally got them to admit that they would be able to give me the certificate, they did not like my proof (social security card, driver license, voter registration, and passport that all had my married name) that I was the person whose certificate I wanted ... it was a nightmare that kept me from starting work for 2 days before I finally managed to force them to give it to me.  This was back in the early 1980's and I can only imagine that it has gotten worse since, although it's hard to imagine how it is even possible for it to be any worse.

Answer 2

All such records were kept by the Parish priest of their Church. most small church records have been lost or are otherwise unavailable.

Answer 3

You could try the newspaper as it’s a free resource NYS historic newspapers https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/  and see if anything is mentioned 

I couldn’t find his FAG link but his gravestone image I believe is sourced here https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/91099/hillside-cemetery