In my last post I looked at Alma Collins, who was a diagnosed schizophrenic and spent much of her life in mental institutions. Alma was the only one of the first four children of Alfred Charles Collins and Annie Elizabeth Parker to survive infancy. But Alfred and Annie would go on to have six further children: Violet, Thomas, Alfred, Annie, Joseph and May. I have yet to uncover what became of May, but the other five siblings all married - however Alfred, Annie and Joseph would each have to endure divorce before finding more successful second marriages. Coming from an extended family in which divorce has been rare, I was quite surprised to discover this, particularly as these divorces occurred between the mid-1930s to the early 1950s, when divorce was not as common as it is today. Thanks to PROV (Public Records Office Victoria), the files on two of these three divorce cases are available to be read. Not surprisingly they do not paint a pretty picture on the early years of marriag...