Hello all Peter is almost correct since the 1600s marriages between people who were related in various ways were forbidden by parliament as well as church law. These were known as The Prohibited Degrees. A marriage between two people within a prohibited degree needed a private act of parliament to permit it. The general prohibitions prevented someone marrying a brother or sister (or their spouse), parent,grandparent,Aunt,Uncle,Child or grandchild(or their spouse) neice or nephew (or their spouse) spouses child, grandchild,parent,aunt,uncle or grandparent. Changes to the law were made in 1907 and 1921 to allow people to marry the spouse of their brother or sister,provided that the brother or sister was deceased. (source Ancestral Trails - Mark D HERBER ISBN 0-7509-2484-5) Hope this helps,Linda and Tony Interesting request & statement. I understood , under English Law, it was illegal to marry your late husbands brother. If memory serves me correctly, this changed about 1931. -- Best regards, Peter McNulty peter@sparshott.org.uk