Genealogy Chat

just thought i would add to this. my parents are 1st cousins married in 1959. sometime this makes my tree very confusing i can tell you!!

I have a marriage to a deceased wife's sister in 1853, when it was still illegal. First marriage in Lambeth, the second in St Pancras. Surely some of the witnesses/family must have realised but kept mum.

My word, he must have come from good stock to survive!!!!!!!!!! Merry

Chris, My 3xg-grandfather married his late wife's niece too!!!! He went to London for the ceremony in 1803. He made things worse by having a child with his wife's niece whilst the first wife was still alive (and they all lived together.....the niece had been brought in to care for her aunt as she was getting infirm - unusual sort of care!!?!?!?!?!) Merry

I posted on the 14 February about my GGGrandfather who married his deceased wife's neice... Now I know from Merry's posting (Point 29) it was illegal.... How did they get away with it? Witnesses at the wedding WOULD have known the connection....Guess it wasn't a big thing in those days unless the Vicar knew about it and then made it one! Given the old Groom was taking on a spinster nearing the end of her marriagable years the family were probably glad to get rid of her as she was a drain on their limited income!......Hard times :( Chris

I found 2 ancestors of mine who were cousins - married in December of 1869. It was intriguing when I found both their surnames were the same on their daughter's birth certificate , it set me on a frantic search to find out who they were! All great fun!.

I have friends who met & married almost 40 years ago, they shared a mutual love of music which drew them together. it wasn't until they were drawing up the guest list for the wedding they discovered they were actually first cousins.

My maternal grandparents were first cousins and they married in 1919. My mother never mentioned this and I only found out when I started my family tree. I thought it was frowned upon but obviously I got it wrong! Lynne

I don't think that it was the norm, but it was certainly common. I suppose that if you lived in a small community there wasn't the opportunity to meet loads of different people and people married those that were available!! I do have one relly that married his nephew's widow who was 21 years younger than him. How about that for an unusual one??

All of henry VIII 's wives were his cousins to some degree http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Henry_VIII_of_England But the law was changed to allow him to marry Anne Boleyn as he and already had intermate relations with her sister Mary (resulting in 1 if not 2 children). This made Anne out of bounds to marry Henry as she in someways was considered his sister-in-law.

I've several cousin marriages in my tree, and found it not only makes it easier to research, but its also a very good argument for looking at the extended family rather than sticking to your direct line. I always wondered how my 2xgt grandparents got together - he from coal mining stock & she from a farming family based 30 miles away. He joined the army to escape the grit & grime and ended up a career soldier. They married in Bombay. I had a shock researching her family when I found out her uncle had married my 2x gt grandfather's older sister some 15 years earlier. [work out that relationship!] At least this family connection explained how they met.

I spoke to my father in law to tell him that two of his cousins had married in the mid 1800's, he looked and said well xxxxx and yyyyyy are cousins ( my nephew and his childs mother ) oh my god - well they are cousins but not first probably three or four times removed. Small villiages is where it comes from, and as you see three, four and five generations later the children are meeting up and marring again!! Glad I'm from the big city! lol

Olde Crone, There's a saying round here that farmers only marry amongst themselves to keep the money in the family, and that certainly seems to have been the case! I'm afraid I can't aspire to the farmers, though, mine were only the sKivvies. Jay

Dea and Janet Most of my rural farmer ancestors married cousins etc. It gets very complicated when the generations get out of sync - someone from the fourth generation marrying someone from the fifth, for instance. GR tree simply cannot cope with this! I am sure it was for the reasons a) A limited choice of marriage partners in an isolated rural community. b) A farmer's need to ensure that all his hard work, and his land, went to someone 'in the family' rather than to an incoming stranger. My rellies also seem to disprove the theory that inbreeding is a 'bad' thing. Few of them died in infancy, a few women died in childbirth, but the rest went on to live VERY long lives and produce huge families, despite their extremely small gene pool! Olde Crone.

Many of my rural lot married other members of the extended family, including first cousins, or people who have been a witness at a family marriage. If you take into account how little time was spent away from your 'place', a family edding would be an ideal opportunty to meet a fresh face. Also, if you had only a couple of hours off and didn't have time to walk home and back again, you probably spent it with members of the extended family. If you were in service and lived in the country, then opportunities to meet people were very limited. Jay

On my partners Irish line they have 1st cousins marrying! c1890. They say that, that hill is FAR FAR! away!!! lol (nod nod wink wink) They have farmed the same land for 600 years! Gerri x Lovely interesting thread...thanks :-))

The Roman Catholic Church never forbade the marriage of First Cousins - but it DID demand that the couple request a Dispensation, either from the Bishop, or directly from Rome. The request for Dispensation was always accompanied by a hefty purse of course. I think where Henry V111 comes in is the point where PROTESTANT cousins no longer needed to request a dispensation from Rome. (I am unsure whether they needed to request a Dispensation from Henry???) but Roman Catholics presumably still had to go through the same rigmarole. Olde Crone

Which of Henry VIII's 6 wives was his cousin, then?

I'll let my brother and sister-in-law/cousin know - it'll make a change letting them know they are upholding a royal tradition rather than me calling them trailer trash!! (only in jest of course). It does make it confusing trying to explain the relationships - i am my nephews aunty and also his first cousin, once removed I think. Then there's his half-brother as well which is just mindboggling!!

Anyone who has first cousins marrying within their tree can thank Henry VIII for changing the law to allow him to marry his cousin.