Occasionally in our research, we encounter things that give us pause. Frequently, these items come from the Sabbath Recorder, as that publication often included trivial or amusing tidbits, or advertising which now seems very strange to our eyes. We’ve encountered just such a thing today, from the Sabbath Recorder volume 2, issue 42, page 167. The text is below.
Singular Marriage–A widower at Camden who was not very young, became smitten with a young and beautiful girl, and married her. A short time after, the son of this man, by a former wife, became also in love, not with a younger person, but with the mother of his father’s new wife; a widow lady still in the bloom of life. He offered himself, and soon the young man and the widow were united in the bands of matrimony, so that in consequence of these two connections, a father became the son-in-law of his own son, and the wife not only the daughter-in-law of her own son-in-law, but still more, the mother-in-law of her own mother; while the husband of the latter is the father-in-law of his own mother-in-law, and father-in-law to his own father. Singular confusion may arise if children should spring from these peculiar marriages.
Questions remain as to why this sort of tidbit was published in the Recorder, but we post it now for your wonder and amusement.