Beth,

I can't find the first person regarding the this issue, but I hope
someone can clarify this as well.

While working with Rabbi's registry records in and around Kezmarok,
Slovakia, and with Mikulas Liptak translating words I did not
understand, there were some instances of women giving birth and their
children listed as "illegitimate." That is, no father's name was
provided.

I think it may have been Warren Blatt in a talk who said that there
was a law in Austro-Hungary, that was prevalent in that empire,
wherein, if a man was married to a woman, and she died, he was
PROHIBITED >from marrying his deceased wife's sister. We know that in
Jewish law, this is perfectly acceptable.

You can see a version of this prohibition that existed even in England
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deceased_Wife';s_Sister's_Marriage_Act_1907.
What it may have been called in Europe, I don't know.

So >from this, perhaps one can deduce that the offspring of such a
second marriage, might be considered as "illegitimate" by civil law,
but the rabbi's record, does NOT say "mamzer" if the baby were truly,
Jewishly illegitimate. (I don't think I have ever seen that, and I
don't know if any rabbi ever did that!)

I hope someone with knowledge of the civil laws will find the
civil/canonical law that will help us all.

Regards,

--
Madeleine
madeleine.isenberg@gmail.com