List of Joseph Smith's wives


, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, secretly taught and practiced polygamy during his ministry, and married multiple women during his lifetime. Smith and some of the leading quorums of his church publicly denied he taught or practiced it.
In 1852, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acknowledged that Smith had practiced plural marriage and produced a written revelation of Smith's that authorizes its practice. Smith's son Joseph Smith III, his lawful widow Emma Smith, and most members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints attempted for years to refute the evidence of plural marriages. They pointed to the historical record that Joseph Smith publicly opposed the practice of polygamy; the suggestion of the RLDS Church was that the practice of Mormon polygamy began in Utah under the leadership of Brigham Young.
The first publication of a list of women alleged to be Smith's plural wives was in 1887, by Andrew Jenson, an assistant church historian of the LDS Church. It included 27 women besides Emma Smith. Currently, there are 49 women on this list. However, historians disagree as to the number and identity of the plural wives which Smith had. Various scholars and historians, including Fawn M. Brodie, George D. Smith, and Todd Compton, have attempted to identify the women who married Smith. The discrepancy is created by the lack of documents to support some of the alleged marriages. As Compton has stated, for many of these marriages, "absolutely nothing is known of marriage after the ceremony." Apart from his marriage to Emma, Smith's marriages were not solemnized under any civil authority and were therefore solely religious unions.

List of wives

Allegations of children born to polygamous wives

Research by Ugo A. Perego, a geneticist and member of the LDS Church, has shown that a number of children of Smith's alleged polygamous relationships were not his genetic offspring. The following table lists some of the children born to Smith's alleged polygamous wives as well as those ruled out by genetic testing:
ChildDate of birthMotherFather DNA testing statusDNA testing resultNotes
Oliver Buell1838–39Presendia Huntington BuellNorman BuellComplete NegativeHistorian Fawn Brodie speculated that Buell was a polygamous son of Smith.
John Reed HancockApril 19, 1841Clarissa Reed HancockLevi HancockComplete NegativeOnly anecdotal evidence that Clarissa Reed Hancock was a plural wife of Smith.
Mosiah HancockApril 9, 1834Clarissa Reed HancockLevi HancockComplete NegativeOnly anecdotal evidence that Clarissa Reed Hancock was a plural wife of Smith.
Frank Henry HydeJanuary 23, 1845, 1846?Marinda Johnson HydeOrson HydeIncomplete?
Orson Washington HydeNovember 9, 1843Marinda Johnson HydeOrson HydeNot possible n/a
Zebulon JacobsJanuary 2, 1842Zina Huntington JacobsHenry JacobsComplete Negative
George Algernon LightnerMarch 22, 1842Mary Elizabeth Rollins LightnerAdam LightnerNot possible n/a
Josephine Rosetta LyonFebruary 8, 1844Sylvia Porter Sessions LyonWindsor LyonComplete NegativeMother told Josephine on deathbed that she was Smith's daughter.
Moroni PrattDecember 7, 1844Mary Ann Frost Stearns PrattParley P. PrattComplete Negative

Citations

*