Daily AncestorMother-in-law
Mother-in-law could mean stepmother in older records, the father's later wife, as well as a spouse's mother.
Mother-in-law now means the mother of one's husband or wife. Dictionaries also record an older sense: a stepmother, the woman one's father had married.
If a young person names a mother-in-law in a will or letter and they were unmarried, or the ages make a spouse's mother impossible, a stepmother is the likely meaning.
As seen in a recordWill recorded in a county will book, 1800s
To my mother-in-law Ann, my father's widow, her bed and furniture.
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Mother-in-law." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/relationships/mother-in-law. Last checked 2026-10-01.