At least in that case no common blood line was shared between Uncle and neice. Try to get your head around this one. From my Dorset Bunter and Chant families that later settled in New South Wales two Chant sons of a Bunter sister married two Bunter daughters of a Bunter brother. In other words their children: Two Chant brothers married two Bunter sisters who were cousins. Another Bunter daughter/sister married a nephew of the Chant brothers so a 1st cousin once removed. So the two sisters nephew was married to their sister. After one of the Chant brothers first wives, his Bunter cousin died of TB he married another of his Chant brother's daughters two weeks before my great grandmother was born to uncle and neice. He'd got his neice pregnant while she was looking after his young motherless children. So her uncle was her husband. She was mother of her Chant/Bunter)cousins(children of first marriage) and mother and cousin of her own children and her husbands children by his first marriage were also his cousins. And his children from his second marriage were his great neices and nephews. My great grandmother moved to WA with her parents and uncle/grandfather where yet another Bunter brother of the Bunter sister and Bunter brother first mentioned had settled my great grandmother than married a step grandson of a man whose first wife was her Bunter grandmothers neice also named Bunter. Of Four Bunter siblings to arrive in three Australian States from Dorset far removed from each other I connect to three on different family lines other than as just siblings. I have noticed this intermarrying in early colonial Australia between cousins etc was not uncommon and tracing sideways on my Dorset families it seems to not have exactly been uncommon in the home country either, Church of England religious laws or not. I am glad to see where I have found cases of family members being baptised twice in registers was not wrong either. Many are often just before they married seems common. By then a different vicar/incumbant was performing the ceremony and may explain why they were baptised again if they were not sure the ceremony had been performed when young. Maybe the baptism certificsate had been lost. These were not only used as proof of being baptised so you could be buried in consecrated ground but as legal proof of where you were from when travelling/working in other parishes where questions of poor relief or vagrancy might be raised. regards Michael Cheeseman -----Original Message----- From: Helen Jones [mailto:hsj@melcombe.freeserve.co.uk] Sent: Monday, 21 July 2003 10:26 PM To: ENG-DORSET-LIFE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [DOR-LIFE] Deceased wife's sister's daughter At 11:48 20/07/2003 +0800, Caroline Ingram wrote: >Hi > I know we have had a similar discussion on marriage with deceased >wife's sister previously. Can anyone confirm that you were also not >supposed to marry your deceased wife's sister's daughter (ie your >neice)? I have one of these in my tree in 1852. Although I dont know >exactly where they married it was in the Wareham registration district >so it was close to where they were living. > >regards >Caroline >Western Australia The theory was that when you were married you became one flesh so then marrying any member of your wife's immediate family was incest. The Forbidden partners as stated in the Book of Common Prayer 1662 lists 60 prohibted combinations. At number 30 is a man's wife's sister's daughter. This was not removed from the list until 1931. Thus it would have been illegal by Canon Law in 1852. This means that any children would have been illegitimate. "Marriage Laws, Rites, Records and Customs" by Colin Chapman has the whole list of prohibited marriage partners as Appendix 11. All the best Helen Helen Jones, Weymouth, Dorset http://www.melcombe.freeserve.co.uk List Admin Rootsweb Eng Dorset & Scammell Lists, and British Genealogy Eng-Dorset, Surnames & Forenames list ==== ENG-DORSET-LIFE Mailing List ==== For old maps, see the Landmark Map site http://www.old-maps.co.uk/ ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.502 / Virus Database: 300 - Release Date: 18/07/03 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.502 / Virus Database: 300 - Release Date: 18/07/03