Yes but what it says is that two people can go through a marriage ceremony, consider themselves married (or at least one of them may think so) but not be legally so - if one of them is already married for example.
In this case, that is all moot. In retrospect, it might be possible to argue that given Obama Sr’s previous marriage in Kenya, his marriage to Dunham in Hawaii wasn’t legal. However, the contemporary divorce documentation show’s that the court had proof presented to it that Obama Sr and Dunham were married in February 1961 in Hawaii and that the divorce was granted for grievous mental suffering with no mention of putative status or bigamy.
Bar a copy of a the original marriage certificate being found, that is about as definitive as anyone is going to get that there was a marriage ceremony on that date in Hawaii - which was during Dunham’s pregnancy.
If proof of the aforesaid marriage was presented, it would be included in the divorce decree papers. I have them displayed on a different tab. Which page should I look at, in order to study the ‘proof of marriage’ document?
‘”How and when the marriage occurred remains a bit murky, a bill of particulars that I have never quite had the courage to explore. There’s no record of a real wedding, a cake, a ring, a giving away of the bride. No families were in attendance; it’s not even clear that people back in Kansas were informed.”’
Micelle Obama, speaking to public school kids: ‘His own mother [Stanley Ann], she said at the beginning of her remarks, was “very young and very single when she had him.”’