Divorce Revealed

Archie and Minnie

Just occasionally surprising new information arrives on my desk, usually from readers of this blog and this week has seen such a piece. A 'descendant relation' of a McNabb family got in touch. In the 18th Century the McNabbs were in the Isle of Islay, Argyll, Scotland and at the beginning of the 19th Century emigrated to Ontario, Canada. Andrew Donald and Violet McNabbs (the Scots way to show that both husband and wife had the same surname, McNabb) had two daughters, Minnie and Millie. My correspondent is the great nephew to Minnie who married Archibald Duncan McIlhagga in June 1912 in Canada. He was 30 and she was 20. The above photograph is of the couple, I would think soon after their marriage. On the back is written "Irish Bobby Archibald Duncan McIlhagga born in Belfast, Ireland. RC Army R. 1896-1961 and Maru Isabell (Min)". I have permission to reproduce the photo.

Part of the new information is the photograph itself which has come down through the McNabb family. We have always known that Minnie, whose full name was Mary Isabella, predeceased Archie. She died in 1961 and he in 1968. It is not surprising therefore that his death certificate, from West Vancouver, says he was a widower. What has recently come to light and is new information for us, is that Minnie died not in Canada but in Auburn, Washington, USA. She is buried in Hillcrest Burial Park there, and her death record states that at the time she was married to John Maggert. We must therefore conclude that she and Archie divorced and that she remarried, which indeed she did on 2nd March 1931 in Whatcom County, Washington. She was then forty one. To the best of our knowledge she had no children with either Archie or John.