Marriage of Step Siblings

A marriage between step-siblings is not a rare encounter.

Below is an explanation with documents on one such marriage.

Richard Everet Wolff (1908-1992) was my father's second cousin, three times removed. The common ancestors were Peter John Hyser (1790-1874) and Ella Fritz (1801-1847) of Greene County, New York.

Richard married his step-sister, Grace Liebeherr (1914-1993) in 1939 in South Orange, Essex County, New Jersey. One year earlier, Grace's mother, Edna Schermerhorn Hogan (1884-1938), who was also Richard's step-mother, died. I don't know if her death influenced the timing of the marriage. Perhaps a descendant could write in to clarify?

Witnesses Edna Gamble Liebeherr (sister of Grace Liebeherr) and G Wallace McComb.

Death certificate for Annie Coombe, first wife of Charles Wolff, 1927
in Westfield, Union County, New Jersey.

Death certificate of Edna Hogan, second wife of Charles Wolff, 1938
in South Orange, Essex County, New Jersey.

Richard's parents were Charles Endicott Wolff (1881-1946) and Annie Rosalee Coombe (1886-1927). They had married in Jersey City in 1907.

In 1928, one year after his first wife's death, Charles Wolff remarried to Edna Hogan in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey. Edna was the widow of Richard Liebeherr- Grace's father, who had died in 1924.

Death certificate of Richard Liebeherr, first husband of Edna Hogan, 1924
in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey.
Informant was Ernest L Broome of Tarrytown, New York.
Why was his wife not the informant?

The merged families in the 1930 federal census at 116 Prospect Street, East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey.

The family remained living together in 1940 following the death of Mother Edna
and the marriage of Richard and Grace.
195 Prospect Street, East Orange.