Marriage and a question ...

Pollowick · Post by **Pollowick** » 23 Sep 2011 14:06

I have gone back several generations and across to the brother of one of my Great-Grandparents and I was getting some strange loops and relationships which did not look right. Further research may have turned up the answer ...

My Great Great Uncle married a woman who already had at least one child. They went on to have seven children before she died. The wife and her child had similar names. It then appears that my Great Great Uncle married his late wife's daughter and they then had three children. So, he was both Father and Step Grandfather to them, children from the second wife were both brother/sister and nephew/niece to children from the first.

The question, if anyone knows the answer. Was that marriage legal and also acceptable to the Church and would it be so today? There was no blood relationship between them.

ID:5475

Post by **tatewise** » 23 Sep 2011 14:36

This seems to answer the current legal situation:
http://www.weddingguideuk.com/articles/ ... ibited.asp
It is illegal unless they are both at least 21 years of age. The younger of the couple must at no time before the age of 18 have lived in the same household as the older person. Neither must they have been treated as a child of the older person's family.

Pollowick · Post by **Pollowick** » 23 Sep 2011 14:46

Thanks - so illegal now, but I wonder about back in 1890/1900?

The Great Great Uncle's father was a Minister at the local chapel too - and that pushes me to believe that at that time it was legal.

The exemptions almost certainly don't apply as the daughter would have lived in the same household.

Post by **tatewise** » 23 Sep 2011 15:42

This Forbidden Marriage Laws of UK suggests things have not changed much since 1560:
http://www.genetic-genealogy.co.uk/Toc115570145.html

tbsm · Post by **tbsm** » 02 Oct 2011 12:16

The site given covers England through the Church of England for forbidden marriages, but like myself and many other Scottish readers the following site might help it gives a Marriage Guide in Scotland http://www.weddings.co.uk/info/scotland.htm
if this does not cover what you are looking for visit the General Registrar Office for Scotland at http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/index.html

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