Yerushalmi Kiddushin 4:9 ירושלמי קידושין ד׳:ט׳

MISHNAH: If somebody left for overseas together with his wife; he returns with his wife and her children and says, “the wife with whom I left for overseas is this one and those are her children,”²²⁰A Cohen who wants to find matches for his children as members of the priestly clan. he does not have to bring proof either about the wife²²¹Even if nobody recognizes her anymore. or the children. “She died and those are her children,” he has to bring proof about the children²²²That they are the children of his legal wife. but not about the wife.

HALAKHAH: “If somebody left for overseas together with his wife,” etc. Rebbi Abbahu in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: They considered a man and his wife as two witnesses²²⁴In order to let a person marry a Jewish partner, the court will need to have either generally accepted knowledge that the person is Jewish and is not a bastard, or to require testimony to this effect. A man and his wife are really barred from testifying about their children but since a woman is not supposed to raise another woman’s children as her own, her assertion can be believed. since it is general knowledge that a woman will not be silent about another woman’s children. Rebbi Abun referred this to the later statement: “I married a wife overseas, this is she and those are her children;” Rebbi Abbahu in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: They considered a man and his wife as two witnesses since it is general knowledge that a woman will not be silent about another woman’s children²²⁵Therefore, once the foreign woman has been accepted as his legitimate wife, no proof is needed about the children. In the language of the Tosephta (5:8): “A woman is believed if she says: These are my children.”.