Episode 162 - “The Legal Genealogist” On Divorce in the 19th Century

 

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org.  The guys begin by discussing how DNA has tied the 300-year-old remains of a baby boy to his well known father. Then David shares news of a Spanish woman… age 62… who has given birth to a baby girl! You’ll be amazed by her story. Next, they’ll have the story of a pair of World War I soldiers whose bodies have only recently been recovered. They were thought to have been buried somewhere else. Hear the plans for their century-in-the-waiting homecoming.  Fisher then shares with David the news that Levar Burton will be a key note speaker at this year’s Roots Tech conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. David will of course have another genealogy tip for you, and another free guest member NEHGS database.

Next, Fisher has discovered something odd about his great grandfather’s 1874 divorce in New York, which “proved” his wife’s adultery.  It turns out that one of the men who testified to having been with his wife was present with the great grandfather when he died nineteen years later, even supplying information for his death certificate. How could they still be friends after what was confessed to in 1874? What was going on here? “The Legal Genealogist,” Judy Russell drops in for two segments to explain why it’s probably exactly what Fisher thinks… a divorce by fraudulent testimony.  Judy then talks generally about divorce in the 19th century in various parts of the country, and what it took to get a divorce in those times. She also talks about the states and territories that were very much in the business of divorce and how they worked.

Then Tom Perry from TMCPlace.com returns to talk preservation. He discusses a listener question about the best do-it-yourself way to approach digitizing over 100 voice cassette tapes.

That’s this week on Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show!