Bergera, Gary James.  “The Earliest Eternal Sealings for Civilly Married Couples Living and Dead.”  Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 35 (Fall 2002): 41-66. [Mormon/Ritual/ Liturgy/Worship/Salvation of the Dead/Marriage/Sealings]

The author investigates the evidence for the practice of sealing previously married couples, living and dead, during the life of Joseph Smith.  Three charts accompany the article in the form of lists of (1) The Earliest Plural and Eternal Marriages,” (2) “The Earliest Eternal Marriage Sealings for Living Civilly Married Couples,” and (3) “The Earliest Proxy Marriage Sealings.”  Documentation for the details in these charts is largely found in the body of the text as each couple’s circumstances are discussed.  There were a number of insights about sealings which came through both the historical analysis and some of the accompanying quotations that were new and insightful.