Is it common

[~Queen.B~]

Is it common for siblings of one family to marry the siblings of another??
I have come accross this twice in my tree.

I have 2 LOVE sisters marrying KINGSTON brothers.

And i have George and Rhoda LOVE marrying Fanny and James MAIDMENT.

[Nicky L]

I don't think it was so uncommon. My Grandmother's 2 sisters married 2 brothers in the early 1900's.

[vikki brace]

It was quite common, I have them dotted all over my tree, Sisters marrying brother all over the place

[Harrys mum]

My Scottish lot not only married siblings....but they were cousins.

At first I thought they were marrying the own siblings because of the Scottish naming system, there weren't any new names.

Ended up with my famous Grant family....the whole lot were either Isabell or Robert and all five of them had Gordon for a second name.


Queen.....did you need more help with your George Love............I found quite a few Loves in the Qld indexes. I'm going to bed shortly and out in the morning, but can help later in the day. pm me if you like.

[~Queen.B~]

Just PMed you

[~Queen.B~]

Glad to hear it was common LOL

[James]

Happens all the time!!

[herky]

Yes I have had this also - I was quite confused also for some time as both couples called their sons by the same names including their middle names. The middle names were the mother's maiden name - this is quite common in Scotland.
If you have a surname as a middle name then it is a good indicator of either the mother's maiden name or some other female relative. Always a helpful clue.
Also when you have sibling or cousin marriages then they all appear to share the same names, by naming patterns - makes it tricky to sort them all out when looking at censuses. Getting certs sorts it out.
What great detective work it all is!!

herky

[geniedi]

I have two Green brothers marrying two Foster sisters, when one of the Green brothers/Foster sisters died, the two remaining spouses married each other!

[Mavis by the Moor]

I've definitely got at least one instance of 2 brothers marrying 2 sisters.

[Janet]

Yes, I have found 3 Martley siblings marrying 3 O'Neill siblings in Ireland so not uncommon as we might think. My Great Grandparents started it all off, but the story has it they were chased by three brothers and had to hide from their wrath, but 2 of those same siblings then went on to marry my grandfather's 2 other siblings!!

Funny old life!

Janet

[Little Nell]

Yes!

My gt grandfather Thomas had two brothers who married two sisters. And his father had two aunts who married brothers.

AND

in my husband's tree, he has an instance of 4 sisters. The eldest two married brothers surname Ehn. The youngest two married brothers surname Marsden. Then one of the Marsden wives, after being widowed, married a widowed Ehn brother-in-law.

I also have oodles of instances in larger families where elder sibling marries an uncle or aunt and younger sibling marries niece/nephew.

[Olde Crone Holden]

The best I've got is six of one marrying six of another. There was a daughter left over and she had to wait her turn till one of her sisters died before she could get a husband!

They were all second cousins, although one family came from two different mothers - who were cousins!

OC

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Another contributory factor is peoples religious denomination.

OH's Methodists married other Methodists and in some places there were not too many to choose from. My Quakers married other Quakers and sometimes chose from families from three counties away, but still often married sibling groups.

[Helen Smith Too]

I've got 3 Andersons marrying 3 Marshes in my own family.
In OH's, I've stopped counting!

I've just got some transcriptions of PRs from the parish of Tankersley in Yorkshire. We've both got ancestors from this village, but not found a link between then yet.
I'm unravelling a family called Parrot (OHs lot).
2 brothers, Charles and Edward.

Charles marries Hannah Shaw in 1820. Has 4 children and then dies in 1827. Is buried on the same day as youngest child is baptised.

Edward marries Mary Fenix in 1824. Has 1 child. Mary is buried the same day this child is baptised in 1826.

Edward then marries his widowed s-i-l Hannah in Mar 1828. Their child is baptised in Apr 1828, and Edward dies in Oct 1828.

Confused yet? I am

[Janet in Yorkshire]

I have 2 Finch brothers marrying 2 Burks sisters.

I also have Mark Finch marrying his cousin Thirza Mickleburgh. Thirza's brother William Finch Mickleburgh (Mark's cousin and also his brother-in-law) married Susan Farrow. When Thirza died, Mark her widower, then married Sarah Farrow, sister of Susan. Quite a complicated 5 some, all related to each other in several ways.

[Peter Evans]

I think I have serial in-marriage over three, and possibly four, generations: two Talbot brothers married Mortlock sisters. A son of one pair married a daughter of the other, being double cousins; then their son married his cousin. Then two of their daughters married men called Hudson, probably brothers.

Peter

[Olde Crone Holden]

I think Merry is right about the lesser religious denominations, certainly. Although not exactly arranged marriages, they were certainly engineered marriages.

Quakers could only marry other Quakers, for example, and as there weren't too many of them about, you took what you could get, I expect, and I am sure there was some manouvring to get a whole family from a different area to come and marry your daughters.

My paternal grandparents were New Connexion Methodists and were more or less pushed into marriage by their respective parents, who knew each other well, of course.

In my farming branches, it all appears to do with consolidating the farms and ensuring the continuity of farming. These are mostly cousin marriages although everyone in the area is related by blood anyway.

In one isolated hamlet it appears to be Hobson's choice - there wasn't anyone else to marry, except the children of the next door neighbour.

OC

[BigShaz McCreadie]

Yes it has happened quite a bit in my family too and I have the cousin thing going on too.

My Paternal Gran 'Jeanie' married my Grandfather 'Duncan' in 1945 and Gran's sister 'Elizabeth' married Granda's brother 'James'.
Gran and her sister came from Gourock whilst Granda and his brother were from Glasgow.

Same in OH's family his paternal Grandfather 'William' married his Gran Maggie a few years after William's sister 'Margaret' had married Maggie's brother 'John'
William and Margaret were from Stirling whilst Maggie and John were from Glasgow.

Thats the strange thing in my tree... where I have these sort of marriages and even the cousin marriages (although they are earlier) the people involved never came from the same place.

[norwayjane]

What I don't understand is how you enter all these relationships into your bog standard family tree programs? (though I'm only struggling with the occasional brothers marrying sisters and cousins marrying cousins)
JANE