Does this count as a marriage?

Question

I know that WikiTree allows people to be linked as spouses if they considered themselves married, even if their union was never legalized. I'm wondering what to do about a "marriage." Lucinda Hendricks believed that she was legally marrying William O. Hummer. However, he and his first wife had not actually divorced, so although they had a ceremony, there was no marriage license. Her father was suspicious and found out that they did not have a marriage license. He demanded that the couple legally wed. They had been living as husband and wife for several weeks. Lucinda now knew that the marriage wasn't legal, and she also wanted to make it official. William told her that he was going to take her to get a license, but instead, he tried to kill her. He had planned to kill himself as well. He wrote a note saying "Bury me and my wife together," proving that he thought of her as his wife. He shot her in the head, but thankfully she recovered. Should William O. Hummer be linked to her as a spouse?

Comments

Hi E. As you point out, there is evidence that both considered themselves as married; on the other hand, the duration of three weeks was very short. I think a decision could go either way. You are the manager of both profiles: I would respect your judgement whatever you choose.

Answer 1

I would say yes.

Answer 2

I thought WT did not recognize common-law marriages, which would be the same as 'considering yourself married, although never legalized'.

Did the second wife know he had a first wife?  Bigamy is illegal, isn't it?  If he was already married, he couldn't be married again, even though lots of men seemed to do that - have multiple families spread along their sales route or whatever.

If they didn't have children, there'd be no blood connection, so I think it should just be noted in the biographies, as an interesting story.

Comments

WikiTree allows people who considered themselves married to be connected as spouses. This includes but is not limited to common-law marriages.

See this authoritative answer from Jamie Nelson on 9 December 2021:

If the people considered themselves married, then they can be attached as spouses in WikiTree even if they weren't officially married. Just explain the lack of a date in the biography.

Similarly Jamie wrote on 24 September 2022:

If they considered themselves as spouses, you can still add them as married even if there wasn't a formal ceremony. Just make sure to explain things in the biography.

If the relationship started at a known time, you could also use that in the marriage date field, maybe marked "about".

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Thank you, Jim.  I thought I read the opposite a couple of weeks ago.

We've been together since 1987 and have a child, and the govt. of Canada considers us married for tax purposes.

Answer 3

Yeah, I got into some trouble over a question like this because I answered one way, then it turned out the other way!  My down votes soared! bahahaaha!

So, that being said, before I get struck by lightning again, I have a Draper relative in another branch of the family that had three wives.  Turns out he never divorced the first two!  When it came time for the wives to seek alimony, the judge threw it all out!  Well, my cousin has them all listed as wives.  It is his great grandfather and his mistresses!

There there was the question on a same sex union that the couple kept secret and to my surprise, that was allowed!  So I'm confused!

If we have a policy covering this, I would sure be gald to refer people to it!