Reverend George and Nancy (Fry) Swartz/Schwartz had 12 children. The family has a unique marital pattern (or at least one I’ve never run across before) of marrying the widowed in-laws. Half of their children were involved in these two-prong marriages.
- George Wiley Swartz married his younger brother Abraham’s widow (It was George’s second marriage also.)
- Eliza Ellen Swartz married her older sister Sarah Sophia’s widower. (It was her first marriage but the groom’s third.)
- Laura Virginia Swartz married her older sister Hester’s widower. (It was her first marriage but the groom’s third.)
I don’t know what this marriage pattern is called if it even has a name. It conjures up the biblical injunction for brothers to marry their brother’s widows if the first marriage had no children (Deuteronomy 25:5-6.) In biblical terms this is called “Levirate marriage.” But in the Swartz situation all three of the first marriages had children. And of course, they also have sisters marrying sister’s widowers. So similar but not formally biblically based.
Reverend George and Nancy were well known in their community for their piety and staunch early Methodism. But….