ANSWER: It was the practice of the Jews to exclude the names of women from their genealogical registers and to put the husband's name instead. Mary was the daughter of Heli and Joseph was his son-in-law in Luke's list of Mary's natural descent. Matthew gives her legal genealogy. Many difficulties in respect to names of persons and the number of generations arise from the fact that some men had more than one name, and the names of bad ancestors were dropped out of the list. See Methodist Quarterly Review, October, 1852.
— From Steele's Answers p. 17.