First Cousins - Marriage

[Jean and Tonic]

Can you knowledgable people tell me if it was OK to marry your cousin in 1830?

Thankyou

Jean

[Mary from Italy]

I don't think it's ever been illegal.

[Olde Crone Holden]

I think it is one of the biggest Urban Myths of all time that you cannot marry your first cousin - you can and always could.

However, at one time (pre Reformation) you had to get permission from the Pope and the more money you sent with your request, the more likely you were to be granted permission!

This meant that poor people could not afford to marry their cousins and I think this is where the idea started that it was forbidden.

My lot didn't marry anyone EXCEPT their cousins for centuries.

OC

[Harrys mum]

I thought my Scottish lot married their siblings...............but they ALL married their cousins. Just the names were the same. LOL

[Jean and Tonic]

Thanks both ... the whole things been confusing me for ages as they both had the same surname but were born at different ends of the country.

It wasn't until I found some letters in the archives that it's all starting to make sense. They were obviously keeping the money in the family although they didn't have any children.

Thanks again

Jean

& Harry's Mum ..... missed the post

[Little Nell]

I have a set of cousins whose children married eachother - a double cousin wedding. They had 3 children who all died in early adulthood without having any children themselves.

[Peter Evans]

Little Nell,

I think I can trump your double cousin marriage: I have double cousins whose son then married his cousin. It drastically reduces the number of different ancestors since their children have four gt-gt-grandparents who appear three times each.

Peter

[Little Nell]

Well, it makes for a smaller pedigree, a bit of inbreeding!

[Grosert]

I think it was more acceptable back then.

My ex husband's 2 brothers married 2 sisters who were their first cousins. Unfortunately the children didn't do too well, but it is not illegal. I have a situation with my ancestors where I think maybe first cousins married, but I can't make the connection.

[BigShaz McCreadie]

Yes I find the marriages between first cousins to be quite a common occurance.

I can say that in my tree any children born to two cousins have not had any problems and have gone on to marry and have children of their own.

[Vicky the Viking]

My lot didn't marry anyone EXCEPT their cousins for centuries.

OC

One of my branches were dab hands at this too :D

actually, it wasn't [usually] first cousins, though I do have some occurences of this. They married brother-in-laws' nieces, second cousins' brothers-in-law, cousins' cousins etc Some are complicated relationships but it makes doing the tree easier, as its the same half-dozen families cropping up again & again. (That's "easier" if you are good at disentangling spagetti ) In fact, it got to the point where I thought I must have the wrong spouse if I COULDN'T find a connection.

Not sure whether its considered a genetic problem or not, but several generations also have similar facial characteristics

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

My OH has two branches on his tree that come from villages where the gene pool of a few hundred people was mixed and mixed for several hundred years. In one village in Staffordshire the top three occuring surnames I had never come across before and there are almost no instances of more normal common names such as Smith etc. The other village - or pair of neighbouring villages - are in the New Forest in Hampshire, again with several localised surnames that appear virtually nowhere else in the country. As far as I know these hundreds of years of highly complex inbreeding caused no noticable problems at all! We have met many people directly descended from these villages.

OH is descended from a marriage between a man from the Staffordshire village and a woman who was the dau of a lady from the New Forest village, so I tell OH he has no excuse for any odd behaviour! lol

[Olde Crone Holden]

Merry

On the Cheshire branch of my family, I have six recurring surnames, with the odd wild card marriage....which then turns out to have been a surname in the village a hundred years before!

All this inbreeding never did my lot any harm - huge families who in turn had huge families and all lived to a ripe old age, barring accidents.

The problem with first cousin marriages only comes if there is ALREADY a genetic disorder - Nature doesn't punish you for marrying someone who has some of the same ancestors as you. However, repeated generations of marriages within that family group will strengthen the faulty gene - if it doesn't actually eliminate the carrier.

In the 19th and early 20th century, the medical fraternity counselled that first cousins who married should not have children, and sadly, many obeyed them. In fact, I read somewhere that a first cousin marriage is no more likely to produce a less than perfect child, than is the marriage of two "genetic strangers" - at least with a first cousin marriage you probably already know if there is some family defect.

OC

[Rachel Scand]

As far as I know these hundreds of years of highly complex inbreeding caused no noticable problems at all!

Oh that's good ... I've always wondered about your Avatar

[Canadian Cousin]

Oh that's good ... I've always wondered about your Avatar

... so have I! :D :D :D :D

Tim

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Do try and concentrate :( I'm talking about my OH, not me!!!! lol :D

[Helen Smith Too]

I've found one case of first cousins marrying on OHs side as recently as 1927. Unfortunately the groom was killed in a plane crash 4 months later.

I confused my S-i-l trying to explain it to her, as there were 3 marriages that brought the families together in the first place.

[Uncle John]

Do try and concentrate :( I'm talking about my OH, not me!!!! lol :D

Sorry, I assumed it was he :D:D

[Jean and Tonic]

that's all very interesting ... I didn't realise it happened so frequently.

I'm one of those who always thought that doubling up the genes caused problems.

It's taken me ages to sort this out ......... simply because I thought it shouldn't happen, so I was looking elsewhere for the partner ........ instead of in the family.

It does make for a very short branch on one side of my tree.

Jean

[Olde Crone Holden]

Jean

But it saves SOOOO much paper!

Vicky

Your comment about facial characteristics is interesting. I am OBSESSED with the photo of a man named John James Holden, who is the spitting image of my late father. I have gone back to 1720 with John James and there is no obvious connection.

I CAN make a connection in 1520........which means the facial resemblance waited 400 years to pop out!

OC