Genealogy Chat

I wonder if anyone could help. I'm a probate researcher and I'm stumped. I'm looking for a marriage between an Alma Park (Park is her birth name) and a Mr J Stevens. I'm not sure if she was married before this marriage to Mr Stevens. I only know she was married to this man via the Treasury Solicitor's office who said this his name was on the death certificate. Alma was born 8 Jul 1917 in Newcastle but apparently moved to London at an early age and lost touch with the rest of the family. Alma's father was Henry Featherstone Park and her mother was Rosetta Park nee Ludkin.
Any help you can give would be warmly welcomed by me and the family.

A name on a death cert is no proof of a marriage having taken place

As you are - presumably - a professional, one would have thought that you would have access to far more resources than do the GR members

Look for a marriage in her maiden name.......then follow-through from there

here is her death cert
Name: Alma Stevens
Birth Date: 8 Jul 1917
Date of Registration: Mar 2005
Age at Death: 87
Registration District: Barking and Dagenham
Inferred County: Essex
Register Number: A31
District and Subdistrict: 218/1
Entry number: 145

Thanks Shirley and Reggie

I am a 'professional' but it's more of a hobby and I barely cover costs. I cannot afford to subscribe to expensive systems and so have no more resources than anyone else.

This one irks me as I have everything else I need and thought someone might have a brainwave that I could follow in a bid to move forward on behalf of the family

Perhaps she married in 1936 in Battersea

then later in 1952 in ILLFORD under the Stevens surname to Joseph.

both marriage certificates could be a means of proof....@ £9-25 each one.

Thanks Kay

What were the names for the 1936 marriage?

Alma ??

William Pigden,,,

back then divorces had to be paid for......unless one was a widow/widower.....

Still confused. If she married Pigden in 1936 I should be able to the next marriage to a Mr J.Stevens under the name of Alma Pigden, or Alma Park if she reverted to her maiden name

Not if she changed her name to Stevens --quite easy to do even back then,

But the certificates would either confirm or dismiss...

Paul, even if you don't have access to "expensive systems" you still have the same access as us to the free ones such as FreeBMD.

There was an Alma Stevens in Barking on the ER up to 2005 but no husband listed. Mr J Stevens could be a son.

Also the death certificate will state what relationship the informant was and if she was a widow or wife of.

Didn't you take note of what I said about names on certs at the start of my first response to you?

You will have to buy certs.................as you are no doubt charging the family for your services.

Kay??????

Why would a widow/widower need a divorce?

Her father left a will when he died in 1949.
Probate was granted to a person of the same name as the deceased, so presumably his son.
There is a birth registered for a child of that name with mmn Ludkin a couple of years after Alma, so presumably her brother.
Might be worth getting a copy of the will & following up the brother.