The prompt for Week 16 is Step, and it brings to mind the complexity of step families.
Family relationships are not always straightforward. Especially in small communities, people could be connected in multiple ways, with several intermarriages within the local families. In my own more recent tree, I have an aunt and a great aunt who married brothers. This made the two women not only aunt and niece, but also sisters-in-law.
While years ago divorce and subsequent remarriage was not as common as it is today, often the loss of a spouse resulted in the remarriage of the surviving partner, often for economic necessity. A widowed woman, especially one with young children, needed the income of a husband as there were few opportunities for women to earn an independent living. Similarly, a man whose wife has died, perhaps in childbirth, would often remarry quickly in order for his children to have a mother to care for them while he worked. Given the higher mortality rates of women in childbirth, I have several men who married multiple times, having children with 2 or more different wives. While this happened with women also, in my own tree at least it is not so common.
Probably the most complex Step relationship I have is that of Thomas May, my 3xGreat Grandfather. Thomas married a total of 4 times, losing his first three wives in childbirth. Each time, he remarried within a year of his spouse's death. It is his 4th wife, Susannah Balls (nee Hart), where the relationships become truly convoluted. Susannah's daughter (also Susannah) was married to Thomas's second son William. So Thomas became not only father-in-law but also step-father to Susannah Jr, and his new wife Susannah became mother-in-law and step-mother to William.
Complex Step-families indeed!
