This is a brief guide to help you with your research. Divorce records are incomplete and are kept in a variety of archives. This guide will help you to find out if the information you are looking for exists, and if it does where to find it.
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What do I need to know before I start?
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Try to find out:
- the names of the petitionerthe husband or wife who starts legal action in a divorce and respondentthe spouse who is being divorced
- the approximate date of the divorce
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What records can I see online?
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Divorce case files (1858-1911)
Search and download divorce case files for England and Wales (J 77/1/A1 - J 77/1063/2238) at Ancestry.co.uk (£there will be a charge).
See below for guidance on how to find case files from 1912 to 1937.
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What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?
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Divorce case files (1858-1937)
Search Discovery, our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies, by name of petitionerthe husband or wife who starts legal action in a divorce, respondentthe spouse who is being divorced or co-respondenta person accused of adultery with the spouse of the petitioner for divorce suitslegal suit - a case heard in a law court in England and Wales, both successful and unsuccessful, in J 77.
Narrow your search by using quotation marks to find a person's full name, such as "John Williams".
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To access these records you will either need to visit us, pay for research (£there will be a charge) or, where you can identify a specific record referencea unique set of letters and numbers identifying a document in The National Archives, order a copy (£there will be a charge).
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What records can I find in other archives and organisations?
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Decrees absolute (1858 to present)
Find the decree absolutea document finalising a divorce to obtain legal proof of a divorce in England or Wales by requesting a search (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.) of the Central Index of Decrees Absolute. To do so, download Form D440 from Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service website and post it to the Principal Registry of the Family Division.
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Scottish divorce records (1563 to present)
Contact The National Archives of Scotland for Scottish divorce records before 1984. Contact the General Register Office for Scotland for Scottish divorce records from 1984 to the present.
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Northern Irish divorce records
Contact the court where the divorce was granted: either the Royal Courts of Justice (Belfast) or a county court. For the contact details, use the Courthouse Information Leaflets on the Northern Ireland Court Service website.
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What other resources will help me find information?
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Websites
Search The Times Archive (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.) to view articles about some of the more newsworthy divorce cases from 1785-1985.
Browse a list of private Acts of Parliament to check for divorces before 1858. -
Books
Read Road to Divorce: England 1530-1987 by Lawrence Stone (Oxford University Press, 1990).
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