Re: Marriage to deceased wife's sister

Kim Groothuis wrote:
Thanks Eve, that's useful. Anybody else on the list got a marriage of a widower to his late wife's sister during the 1800s?
Kim


Our mother's maternal grandparents were "married" in 1880, albeit in Toronto. The laws in both Ontario and Quebec, both civil and ecclesiastical, were changed in 1883, permitting a man to marry his late wife's sister. The converse, i.e. that a woman could marry her late husband's brother, was permitted under law considerably later, sometime after the turn of the century, I believe.

When I was researching this particular bit of our family history, about five years ago, an American sociologist had recently published a book (based, perhaps, upon her dissertation), focusing specifically on irregular marriages in London during the latter part of the 19th century. I'll see if I can't dig up that reference and post it later.

ajk
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