MArriage between step children?

[RJ_Paton]

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. 

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)

[Gan Yam]

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. 😜

[Maiden Stone]

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?

[Trees]

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. 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.

[Redroger]

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.

[Maiden Stone]

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.

[Redroger]

See my above posting. That happened in Cambridge. I believe that marriages were badly Oliver if that is the right term

[Rena]

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.

[smudwhisk]

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.