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Vic Reeves was particularly intrigued by stories that his maternal grandfather, Simeon Leigh, had been married before he met Vic’s grandmother, Lillian Crow, in 1926. Research confirmed that a previous marriage had indeed taken place. Naturally, Vic was interested in what happened to his grandfather’s first wife, and whether the couple produced any children.

The location of Simeon Leigh’s first marriage enabled a search to be made amongst the civil registration indexes to births, and having ordered up all possible birth certificates, three children were eventually located. This was a great surprise; although family legend suggested that there might have been one child, for Vic the appearance of two further children altered the picture completely. He could not believe that his grandfather abandoned such a large family.

Yet more surprises lay in store. On Simeon Leigh’s second marriage certificate, his marital status was recorded as widower, suggesting his first wife had died; yet a thorough search of the death indexes failed to provide a match. Similarly, there was no record that the couple ever obtained a divorce, leading to the conclusion that Simeon Leigh was a bigamist.

A decision was taken to try to find descendants of Simeon’s first marriage. Using a process called ‘forward reconstruction’, the marriages of Simeon’s children were sought and found, and then children from those marriages located. In turn, a search was made to see if any of them had married and had children, and finally a living descendant was tracked down. She was able to confirm that Mary Leigh nee Payne had indeed lived beyond 1926 – and produced a picture of Mary Leigh at her son’s wedding in 1929, three years after Simeon Leigh had fathered a daughter with his second wife.

Marriage certificate
Simeon Leigh and Mary Jane Payne, 1899

Marriage certificate
Simeon Leigh and Lillian Crow, 1926

Going further

Further information about case files of divorce proceedings after 1858 held at The National Archives can be found in our research guides.