(This article originally appeared on page 1 of the October 21, 1902 publication of the Marion Star and is reprinted word-for-word below.)
IN DANGER OF TANGLE
Should Children Be Born to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Massey, Married Monday.
The Awful Mix-Up Caused by Marriage of West Virginian to Step-Daughter.
Parkersburg. W. Va., Oct. 21.—Richard Coleman Massey, aged seventy-one years, was married yesterday to Miss Pearl Odom, aged nineteen. The bride is the step-granddaughter to the groom. Mr. Massey’s son having married the bride’s mother. As the bride was not of age it was necessary to secure the consent of her parents and Massey’s son had to give his official consent before his father could marry. The groom’s son, by virtue of his being the girl’s step-father, gave her away to his own father at the wedding ceremony. The elder Massey, by marriage with Miss Odom, becomes the son-in-law of his own son and thus his own grandson, while the younger Massey becomes his father’s father-in-law or his own grandfather. The bride becomes her own grandmother and the older woman is her own granddaughter. Should children be born to both couple the tangle would be Inextricable.
