# Can a woman marry her mother in Massachusetts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 20, 2011, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382 "2011-01-20T21:35:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Troubles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Troubles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troubles)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/1 "2011-01-20T21:35:01Z")
I was perusing Massachusetts law when I came upon these [two](http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleIII/Chapter207/Section1) [sections](http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleIII/Chapter207/Section2). The law prohibits people from marrying _opposite sex_ relatives - but says nothing about marrying same sex family members. If two brothers wanted to get hitched, they would almost certainly be turned away, but what if they pointed out this kink in the law? The law appears to be on their side, after all… ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/2 "2011-01-20T22:05:35Z")
No idea, but it’s funny that “son’s wife” and “husband’s father” are missing from the respective lists. I wonder if some legislator was wooing his daughter-in-law when this law was being written. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/3 "2011-01-20T22:19:59Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > No idea, but it’s funny that “son’s wife” and “husband’s father” are missing from the respective lists. I wonder if some legislator was wooing his daughter-in-law when this law was being written. You can’t marry them anyway, because to do so would be bigamy. It would need to be expressed as “son’s ex-wife” (or “son’s widow”), and “ex-husband’s father”, if that’s what you meant. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/4 "2011-01-20T22:26:58Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > You can’t marry them anyway, because to do so would be bigamy. It would need to be expressed as “son’s ex-wife” (or “son’s widow”), and “ex-husband’s father”, if that’s what you meant. But the law in the link does specify ‘grandfather’s wife’ and all sorts of other marriages. My slow computer’s Googling does make it seem as though this is a loophole, but perhaps the consanguinous relationships are covered by incest laws. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/5 "2011-01-20T22:34:38Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > You can’t marry them anyway, because to do so would be bigamy. It would need to be expressed as “son’s ex-wife” (or “son’s widow”), and “ex-husband’s father”, if that’s what you meant. If you read the lists, they’re full of things that would imply bigamy, such as “grandson’s wife”. I assume it’s supposed to mean “grandson’s ex-wife” and “dead grandson’s widow”. > [@SciFiSam](#): > > My slow computer’s Googling does make it seem as though this is a loophole, but perhaps the consanguinous relationships are covered by incest laws. But your son’s wife is not a blood relation to you, and other closer blood relatives, such as “brother” are expressly forbidden - I think these **are** the MA incest laws. Nope, knowing the Mass. legislature, I’m convinced someone expressly pulled this from the bill back whenever it was written because he was putting the moves on his daughter-in-law. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/6 "2011-01-20T23:40:24Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > If you read the lists, they’re full of things that would imply bigamy, such as “grandson’s wife”. I assume it’s supposed to mean “grandson’s ex-wife” and “dead grandson’s widow”. > > But your son’s wife is not a blood relation to you, and other closer blood relatives, such as “brother” are expressly forbidden - I think these **are** the MA incest laws. Nope, knowing the Mass. legislature, I’m convinced someone expressly pulled this from the bill back whenever it was written because he was putting the moves on his daughter-in-law. I was responding to the OP’s question - consanguineous relationships, like mother and daughter, would be covered by incest laws; that link can’t be the entirety of laws about incest, since it does happen outside of marriage too. If non-consanguineous relationships maybe aren’t covered because it’s a loophole that nobody particularly wants to close; I mean, marrying a step-daughter that you’ve brought up would be really really weird, but marrying a step-sibling that you only met as an adult? Maybe a bit weird, but not creepy or an excuse for abuse. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/7 "2011-01-20T23:57:44Z")
For the moment between seeing the thread title and hovering the mouse over it, I was desperately hoping this would be referring to a daughter’s presiding over the ceremony as a pastor/rabbi/whatever. No such luck. OTOH, when would this ever happen? Most mothers & daughters can’t stand to spend more than a three-day weekend in each others’ presence (and many have a hard time of it getting through that much). ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/8 "2011-01-21T02:50:41Z")
> [@The\_Scrivener](#): > > For the moment between seeing the thread title and hovering the mouse over it, I was desperately hoping this would be referring to a daughter’s presiding over the ceremony as a pastor/rabbi/whatever. > > No such luck. I was just relieved when I opened the thread and found no “Need Answer Fast”! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/9 "2011-01-21T03:28:25Z")
I keep wondering whether it’s legal in Massachusetts to marry your widow’s sister. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/10 "2011-01-21T03:55:03Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I keep wondering whether it’s legal in Massachusetts to marry your widow’s sister. Only if zombies can get married in MA. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/11 "2011-01-21T04:14:26Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Only if zombies can get married in MA. But what if you became a zombie after you were married? Would that automatically make your wife a widow or would she have a apply for a divorce on the grounds that you were trying to eat her brains? BTW, I know a woman that is married to her ex-husband’s son. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/12 "2011-01-23T02:32:10Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I was responding to the OP’s question - consanguineous relationships, like mother and daughter, would be covered by incest laws; that link can’t be the entirety of laws about incest, since it does happen outside of marriage too. > > If non-consanguineous relationships maybe aren’t covered because it’s a loophole that nobody particularly wants to close; I mean, marrying a step-daughter that you’ve brought up would be really really weird, but marrying a step-sibling that you only met as an adult? Maybe a bit weird, but not creepy or an excuse for abuse. Massachusetts [law on incest](http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter272/Section17) states: > [@](#): > > Persons within degrees of consanguinity within which marriages are prohibited or declared by law to be incestuous and void, who intermarry or have sexual intercourse with each other, or who engage in sexual activities with each other, including but not limited to, oral or anal intercourse, fellatio, cunnilingus, or other penetration of a part of a person’s body, or insertion of an object into the genital or anal opening of another person’s body, or the manual manipulation of the genitalia of another person’s body, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 20 years or in the house of correction for not more than 21/2 years. So, the incest law refers back to the degrees of consanguinity in the marriage law. [Other Massachusetts sex laws.](http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/subject/about/sex.html) ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/13 "2011-01-24T04:46:16Z")
Is it possible to have a widow and still be alive due to having been declared legally dead due to long term disappearance or something similar? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-marry-her-mother-in-massachusetts/568382/14 "2011-01-24T12:28:16Z")
I don’t know about marrying her, but _You Can’t Chop Your Momma Up in Massachusetts_ even if you’re tired of her cuisine [http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/lizziebo.htm](http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/lizziebo.htm) [http://lizzieandrewborden.com/Archive0602/LB/ArchiveLBChop.htm](http://lizzieandrewborden.com/Archive0602/LB/ArchiveLBChop.htm)