An important part of most marriage vows is the limiting phrase "'til death do us part." That wouldn't be applicable at all when you marry someone who is already dead. In France, that was made legally possible in 1959. The case that changed the law was a disaster in Fréjus in which André Capra was killed and his fiancé Irene Jodart was not. Jodart was pregnant, and the press raised a lot of sympathy for her. President DeGaulle got involved, and new law was enacted to allow her child to be classified as legitimate.
Once the law was passed as a kindness to Jodart, the floodgates were opened and others filed for marriage to someone who was already dead, creating a new class of instant widows. The reasons ranged from the understandable to the bizarre, and not every case was accepted. Read about the French posthumous marriage law at Weird Universe. -via Nag on the Lake
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