It isn’t a stretch at all, it is federally legislated and issued, widow benefits, do you think that they had to know what they accepted as a legal marriage for that marriage based benefit?
Did they accept common law marriage? I’d still like to read the part of the legislation where they defined marriage. Common law marriage is a pretty interesting topic, and it would be fun to read up on how it related to this act of the CC. It wasn’t allowed in Britain, but was in some colonies. You seem up to speed on this, so either provide a link or a cut and paste of the law.