Marrying your dead wife’s sister

[jksdelver]

Just seen the subject on another thread

One thing doing that is you have got to get on well with the in-laws 😀😀😀

[Girl Guide]

Yes, I guess that does help.    In my case I didn't have any as both hubby's parents were dead by the time I met him.

[coombs]

Also on the flip side, one woman in my tree married her deceased husband's brother in 1806. I descend from another brother (of the 2 men), the one who was sent to Australia in 1791 for stealing a hog.

[andrewalston]

I've researched someone who married his second wife's sister, in the days when it wasn't allowed.

It is only by examining the father's details that it becomes clear. She used her first husband's surname, completely forgetting about her second husband, who was still alive, and living about five miles away! 

He then abandoned his "wife" number three and fled across the Atlantic with a woman from round the corner.      

[BumbleB]

I've got another one:

James Archbell married Elizabeth Haigh in Leeds in 1818, and then the couple went to South Africa, where James was a Wesleyan Missionary.  Elizabeth died in Pietermaritzburg in 1854. 

I am told that James obtained dispensation to marry Elizabeth's sister, Sarah Ann Strickland (widow) in 1855.

Elizabeth and Sarah Ann are said to be the daughters of William Haigh of Leeds.

Perhaps I should do some more sleuthing!

[PrawnCocktail]

Doing a One-Place Study, I've found several of these!

The best one was a prominent local solicitor. His wife died in 1841. In 1843, he "married" his sister-in-law Sarah - and sent a notice to the newspapers

Northampton Mercury,
Saturday 1 July 1843
At Southampton, in November last, and subsequently in Scotland, Mr J H Sheppard of Towcester to Miss Sarah Gee

They must have gone away on "holiday", and come back "married". There was no marriage (unless they used aliases)

Ten years later, a prominent local businessman copied him:
Northampton Mercury
Sat 18 Dec 1852
On the 15th instant, in Scotland, Mr. John Webb, ironmonger, Towcester, to Maria Franklin, widow of the late Mr John G. Franklin, of Towcester aforesaid

 

[brit]

My fathers first wife dies whilst he was in the army during WW1. They had 3 very young children. The wifes youngest sister was looking after the children but could not continue as she had young children and about to give birth. The eldest unmarried daughter agreed to loo after the children but would not live in the same house as it 'was not done for a single women to live with a married man'. So he married the sister, at as told by those children a terrible wife and mother. She died. A few years later he married my mother but the children were grown and had children who we went to school with.

[MollyC]

I came across a local businessman who I think married his niece, though reasonably close in age.  It was illegal here but they went to Switzerland to marry, c1930.

[Ruskie]

I have an ancestor who married her dead husband’s brother …. and another who married her dead husband’s son (her step son).