RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Springbok on Tuesday 29 April 08 19:30 BST (UK)
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We have just come upon a marriage in my husband's family, between a Step-mother and her step son.in 1842
I was under the impression that Church Law did not allow marriage between Step parent and Step child at this time.
Can any one clarify this Please?
Spring
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The Book of Common Prayer (1662, still valid in 1842) stated that a man could not marry his step-mother.
Nell
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List of Prohibited Degrees cited by Archbishop Parker cited in 1563, and embodied in Canon 99 in 1603 and stated in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer which remained in force until 1907.
[In this Table the term 'brother' includes a brother of the half-blood, and the term 'sister' includes a sister of the half-blood.]
A Man was not permitted to marry his:
Grandmother; Grandfather’s wife; Wife’s grandmother;
Father’s sister; Mother’s sister; Father’s brother’s wife;
Mother’s brother’s wife; Wife’s father’s sister; Wife’s mother’s sister;
Mother; Step-mother; Wife’s mother; Daughter; Wife’s daughter;
Son’s wife; Sister; Wife’s sister; Brother’s wife;
Son’s daughter; Daughter’s daughter; Son’s son’s wife;
Daughter’s son’s wife; Wife’s son’s daughter; Wife’s daughter’s daughter;
Brother’s daughter; Sister’s daughter; Brother’s son’s wife;
Sister’s son’s wife; Wife’s brother’s daughter; Wife’s sister’s daughter.
A Woman was not permitted to marry her:
Grandfather; Grandmother’s husband; Husband’s grandfather;
Father’s brother; Mother’s brother; Father’s sister’s husband;
Mother’s sister’s husband; Husband’s father’s brother; Husband’s mother’s brother; Father; Step-father; Husband’s father;
Son; Husband’s son; Daughter’s husband;
Brother; Husband’s brother; Sister’s husband;
Son’s son; Daughter’s son; Son’s daughter’s husband;
Daughter’s daughter’s husband; Husband’s son’s son; Husband’s daughter’s son; Brother’s son; Sister’s son; Brother’s daughter’s husband;
Sister’s daughter’s husband; Husband’s brother’s son; Husband’s sister’s son.
Stan
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Just to add that these are the Current Restrictions
A man may not marry his:
• Mother (also step-mother, former step-mother, mother-in-law, former mother-in-law, adoptive mother or former adoptive mother)
• Daughter (also step-daughter, former step-daughter, daughter-in-law, former daughter-in-law, adoptive daughter or former adoptive daughter)
• Sister (also half-sister)
• Father's mother (grandmother)
• Mother's mother (grandmother)
• Father's father's former wife (step-grandmother)
• Mother's father's former wife (step-grandmother)
• Son's daughter (granddaughter)
• Daughter's daughter (granddaughter)
• Wife's son's daughter (step-granddaughter)
• Wife's daughter's daughter (step-granddaughter)
• Son's son's wife (grandson's wife)
• Daughter's son's wife (grandson's wife)
• Father's sister (aunt)
• Mother's sister (aunt)
• Brother's daughter (niece)
• Sister's daughter (niece)
A woman may not marry her:
• Father (also step-father, former step-father, father-in-law, former father-in-law, adoptive father or former adoptive father)
• Son (also step-son, former step-son, son-in-law, former son-in-law, adoptive son or former adoptive son)
• Brother (also half-brother or step-brother)
• Father's father (grandfather)
• Mother's father (grandfather)
• Mother's mother's former husband (step-grandfather)
• Father's mother's former husband (step-grandfather)
• Son's son (grandson)
• Daughter's son (grandson)
• Husband's daughter's son (step grandson)
• Husband's son's son (step grandson)
• Son's daughter's husband (granddaughter's husband)
• Daughter's daughter's husband (granddaughter's husband)
• Father's brother (uncle)
• Mother's brother (uncle)
• Brother's son (nephew)
• Sister's son (nephew)
In Scotland, a man may not marry his great-grandmother or great-granddaughter and a woman may not marry her great-grandfather or great-grandson.
Stan
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Thank you, very much Nell and Stan.
Thought that I was correct re the Step relationship but certainly didn't remember many of the others.
The "Lady" concerned had three marriages 1835/1840 and 1842 when she was aged between 24 and 31 yrs.
Will pass this on to other family members,
Thanks again
Spring
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Wow, I have just had a closer look at the present day Prohibitions, and the first bracketed groups are quite bizarre.
Why on earth is a step relation banned? There is no genetic connection as there is with a half sibling!
And cousins are allowed to wed ,which could of more concern if there is a life threatening gene which could be passed on.
Mind you I don't think that there are many registars/vicars who have ever bothered to enquire in that depth.
Spring
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Thanks for the great lists stanmapstone.
Very interesting. but the "logic" behind not allowing non-blood related people to marry escapes me.
dollylee
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And cousins are allowed to wed ,which could of more concern if there is a life threatening gene which could be passed on.
As is well known, in 1540 parliament legalized marriages between first cousins to clear the way for the marriage of Henry VIII to Catherine Howard, although nowhere did the Bible indicate that cousin marriage was undesirable. What is perhaps not so well known is that in 1870, Darwin's close associate, John Lubbock, was elected to parliament and Darwin urged Lubbock to propose the inclusion of a question on cousin marriage in the 1871 census. It would then be established whether families in which the spouses were cousins had fewer children than the average. If so, 'we might safely infer either lessened fertility in the parents, or which is more probable, lessened vitality in the offspring.' Later it might also be possible to find out whether or not 'consanguineous marriages lead to deafness, and dumbness, blindness, etc.' The proposed census question was rejected by the House, although, in committee, the vote was forty five for and ninety two against. George Darwin, Charles's eldest son, then carried out a detailed study and found that there was no evidence that such marriages had significant deleterious consequences from the biological point of view.
[George H. Darwin, 'Note on the Marriage of First Cousins', Jl. Statistical Soc., xxxviii (1875)]
Stan
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Thanks again for all of your information, Stan.
I certainly learned of the 1540 ruling,(our Matriculation/School Cert. studies) but had no idea of the later debate or of the researches by George Darwin.
Spring
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The prohibited degrees are defined in s.1 and Sch.1 of the Marriage Act 1949, as amended by the Marriage (Prohibited Degrees of Relationship) Act 1986 and other legislation.
Apparently a man may not marry his stepdaughter, his stepmother, his step-grandmother or his step-granddaughter, nor a woman marry her stepson, her stepfather, her step-grandfather or her step-granddaughter, unless both parties are over 21 and the time of the marriage and the younger was not at any time before the age of 18 "a child of the family" in relation to the older.
Stan