The use of the “in-law” did not always just indicate the relationship that it does today. In most modern uses of “in-law” a “father-in-law” is the father of someone’s spouse. In the same way a “mother-in-law” is currently generally interpreted as the mother of one’s spouse. In earlier uses, particularly the early 19th century and before, a “father-in-law” could be indicating that the “father-in-law” was actually a subsequent husband of the person’s mother. Today that person is generally referred to as a step-father. Similarly a “mother-in-law” reference could mean that the “mother-in-law” was a subsequent wife of the individual’s father. Today that person is generally referred to as a step-mother. The “in-law” portion of the term stems from the marriage contract signed between the two individuals marrying.
There are several genealogy reminders from this 1962 funeral notice from a newspaper in Quincy, Illinois. It never hurts to search digital images of newspapers for people even when “you know everything about them.” That’s how I originally located this item when searching for my great uncle Alvin Ufkes in a database of newspaper clippings on Ancestry.com. I had not seen the item until I performed that search. My uncle had been a pallbearer at the funeral for his great aunt Anna Buhrmeister. Four of the other pallbearers were names I recognized as members of the same family. The original database of newspaper clippings where I found the funeral notice did not include the precise date of publication. I wanted that and decided to search for the item […]
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