<<snipped>> I think it was the 1907 Act not that it makes any difference But frankly I have found many examples of it happening many years before that The usual ploy was to marry in another Parish or town where they were not known <<snipped>> I've found it happening in the same parish in the later 1800s. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deceased_Wife%27s_Sister%27s_Marriage_Act_1907 which explains also that this Act permitted marriage to a deceased wife's sister, but not to a deceased husband's brother. Adrian B PS - I found a rootschat thread where Guy Etchells claims that the reason for the prohibition is that "in the eyes of the church a man and wife are one therefore a sister of one is a sister of the other" and that therefore marriage to a deceased wife's sister is equivalent to marriage to your own sister, i.e. incest. Whether or not that's true, it can't have been thought through very well because there are many cases of pairs of brothers marrying pairs of sisters. Brother 1 marries Sister 1. Brother 2 marries Sister 2. Therefore Sister 2 "is" sister of Brother 1. OK. But Sister 1 is sister of Sister 2, who is sister of Brother 1, who is brother of Brother 1. So they're all one happy family and Brother 1 married his "own" sister! Everyone still with me??? <grin>