Genealogy Chat

My Grandparents were cousins when they married in 1898.
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My father's parents were 1st cousins, bit of a surprise that! Might explain a lot ...
Jan

Just for info, this is what the current Canadian Marriage (Prohibited Degrees) Act says:

2. (1) Subject to subsection (2), persons related by consanguinity, affinity or adoption are not prohibited from marrying each other by reason only of their relationship.

Prohibition
(2) No person shall marry another person if they are related lineally, or as brother or sister or half-brother or half-sister, including by adoption.


Meaning -- no marrying between parents/grandparents and children/grandchildren, and no siblings or half-siblings.

I believe the adoption provision is included to discourage what we would consider incest in social terms -- relationships where the potential for coercion is just too high because of the proximity and positions of trust, e.g. between adoptive father and adopted daughter, or even betewen adoptive siblings. The social institution of adoption could be jeopardized if such relationships were formally approved.

Loads of first cousins marrying in my tree - I've lost count now!

Marrying a first cousin is perfectly legal in the UK.

PigletsPal asked which of Henry's wife was his cousin (which had been claimed by Amokavid was the reason why Henry changed the rules).
Yes, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard were cousins, but not his cousins.
Wiki search gives 'Henry was distantly related to all six of his wives through their common ancestor, King Edward I of England'

Amokavid was wrong about Henry wanting the rules changed. He really wanted the old ones to be enforced. He had "accidentally" committed incest by marrying his dead brother's widow, having believed that during the 7 months his brother was married and living with his wife the marriage had never been consumated. Italy at the time was occupied by Spain, and there was no way Charles V of Spain wanted his aunt's marriage annulled, so we arrive at the impasse Henry faced.

I don't think it was that uncommon, especially amongst the landed gentry who would wish to keep their fortunes in the family.

It should also be remembered that there were smaller communities especially before the industrial revolution so there was less new blood around. I too have cousins marrying cousins.

Apparently, fifty-five per cent of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins and in Bradford the figure is 75 per cent. British Pakistanis represent 3 per cent of all births in Britain but one third of children with recessive disorders.

Based on this there is a call in some quarters for cousin marriages to be banned, but other sources argue that the risk of birth disorders is still low, and no different to that for mothers in their late 30's early 40's.

It is estimated that 20 percent of all couples worldwide are first cousins. It is also estimated that 80 percent of all marriages historically have been between first cousins, including Mary and Joseph....!

One problem with the Muslim Pakistani community is that cousin marriages get repeated, so the parents of the couple might also be related to each other and so on. Therefore the gene pool gets less & less.
While there are risks of problems with increasing maternal age, the problems are nothing like the devastating effects of some of these recessive conditions.
Jan

It seems cousin marriage is illegal in some American Sates, and some others allow marriage only if there will be no children.

http://marriage.about.com/cs/marriagelicenses/a/cousin.htm

Interesting what you learn on here!

Jan