RootsChat.Com

General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Trees on Friday 02 March 18 11:53 GMT (UK)

Title: MArriage between step children?
Post by: Trees on Friday 02 March 18 11:53 GMT (UK)
Would it have been possible for a man to marry his father's step daughter in 1823?
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: medpat on Friday 02 March 18 11:56 GMT (UK)
Step siblings are not related so I can't see why not.
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: groom on Friday 02 March 18 12:00 GMT (UK)
He couldn't marry his step daughter, but no mention of stepsister, which is what she'd be.

http://www.genetic-genealogy.co.uk/Toc115570145.html
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: Ruskie on Friday 02 March 18 12:01 GMT (UK)
Isn't a man's father's step daughter, the man's step sister? :-\
snap groom ... (and I was just about to post the same link) :)

I am surprised that a man is allowed to marry his step sister. 
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: RJ_Paton on Friday 02 March 18 12:02 GMT (UK)
Would it have been possible for a man to marry his father's step daughter in 1823?

Yes, legally the laws of Incest didn't apply unless the siblings shared a common parent, the biggest hurdle for them would have been the reaction of family, friends and society in general if they knew
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: Trees on Friday 02 March 18 12:03 GMT (UK)
Thank you that was the way I was thinking but some of the old restrictions seemed odd so thought I'd better check they had no common blood.
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: groom on Friday 02 March 18 12:07 GMT (UK)
If you think about it, if you can marry a first cousin, where you share grandparents, why can't you marry a step sibling where you don't share any ancestor? I suppose the only restriction would be if your parent had legally adopted that step child as they would then become your sibling.  ;D ;D
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: Trees on Friday 02 March 18 12:13 GMT (UK)
Its an odd situation Henry FLAVELL married Mary Guest Henry died in 1811
William Flavell (a cousin of Henry) married Lucy Guest (sister of Mary) Lucy also died in 1811
William and Mary had a child in 1814 but married in 1837! with son Dennis acting as a witness.
Meanwhile said son was widowed and married one of Henry and Mary's daughters in 1823
but as the son was not baptised I am trying to prove he was William and Lucys child.
Its well before formal adoption isn't it?
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: groom on Friday 02 March 18 12:22 GMT (UK)
Yes, formal adoption started 1927.
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: RJ_Paton on Friday 02 March 18 12:32 GMT (UK)
If you think about it, if you can marry a first cousin, where you share grandparents, why can't you marry a step sibling where you don't share any ancestor? I suppose the only restriction would be if your parent had legally adopted that step child as they would then become your sibling.  ;D ;D

The Law took quite a while to catch up as an adopted child (even after legal adoption was introduced) still did not fall within the blood relationships which defined much of the law on incest (and therefore marriage)
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: Gan Yam on Friday 02 March 18 12:45 GMT (UK)
Mary married her brother in law! If Dennis was the child of William and Lucy and married his step sister she must have also been his first cousin because she was the daughter of his aunt, who then became his step mother. 😜
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: Maiden Stone on Friday 02 March 18 23:19 GMT (UK)
Mary married her brother in law! If Dennis was the child of William and Lucy and married his step sister she must have also been his first cousin because she was the daughter of his aunt, who then became his step mother.
Was Mary's 2nd marriage legal? Which country was it? Did they marry in a registry office?
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: Trees on Saturday 03 March 18 10:33 GMT (UK)
I think William and Mary were together from 1811 they had a son in 1814 baptised as if they were man and wife... well he was Mr Flavell and she was Mrs Flavell after all, just forgot she was Mrs Henry not Mrs William but they did not actually marry until 1837 with his son acting as witness. By then Dennis and Jane were well married. I wonder why they decided to marry in 1837 was it something to do with registration comming in. I wish they had waited a few months so the fathers names could confirm I have the right families. ;D They all marry in Sedgley Church Henry and Mary, William and Lucy, William and Mary and Dennis and Jane but Dennis had married his first wife in Tipton Church.
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: Redroger on Saturday 03 March 18 17:56 GMT (UK)
I think there were many blind eyes turned.My grandmother's oldest sister married in the 1880s. She died and he remarried. The second wife also died and he again remarried, this time to my grandmother's younger sister. Grandma, a very religious strict Baptist, who probably knew it was illegal (1900) witnessed the ceremony.
In modern times I had  a colleague who when his wife died married her younger sister (1960s) she also died and he married a third sister who outlived him (1980-2000) All legal since 1906.
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: Maiden Stone on Saturday 03 March 18 20:37 GMT (UK)
Browsing a baptism register from late 18th/early 19thC I remember a note by the priest next to one baptism "Parents are brother & sister & married in this chapel, but not by me". I was intrigued and tried to find out more about the couple, without success. I surmised they had been either step-siblings or brother & sister in law.
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: Redroger on Saturday 03 March 18 21:31 GMT (UK)
See my above posting. That happened in Cambridge. I believe that marriages were badly Oliver if that is the right term
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: Rena on Saturday 03 March 18 23:14 GMT (UK)
A few decades ago in the 20th century there seemed to be a flury of court cases reported in the newspapers about the legality of certain marriages.

Regarding step childen.  The ruling at the time was that if the couple had been brought up in the same household from childhood a marriage wouldn't be allowed but as this particular couple hadn't met each other until they'd nearly reached their majority (e.g. aged 21) their marriage was legal.

Then there was the case of a young married couple who'd been taken to court for commiting incest.  The couple had been brought up in different towns and both had different surnames.  It transpired one was the offspring of a couple with one child who had divorced and both had remarried and had further children.   Two half siblings met and married.  The court ordered them not to see each other again.  I remember them being interviewed on TV on our B&W TV and as we didn't get a colour TV until 1980 it must have happened prior to that year.
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: smudwhisk on Sunday 04 March 18 00:39 GMT (UK)
I used to work with someone about 10 years ago whose husband was her stepbrother.  They married I think in the mid to late 1980s.  I think hubbie was possibly 5-10 years older than her so don't know whether they'd spent time as step siblings in the same house or not but it was obviously not an issue for them.  Mind you it confused me completely when she first started researching and I was helping on that line, until she explained that her late stepfather was also her father in law. ;D
Title: Re: MArriage between step children?
Post by: Trees on Sunday 04 March 18 10:23 GMT (UK)
In the case I am persuing both would have been 11 when the father of one got together with the mother of the other I am assuming he was sent tout as an apprentice as his first marriage was out of the village but its not certain they didn't live as one family