Genealogy Chat

How common was it that 1st cousins married? Anyone have relatives that were cousins and married. Also how can you show they were married it's impossible.

We've had this before. Someone I know married a first cousin. :) Joy

It's been legal since Henry Vlll but don't know how common. Bob

well my grandma and grandad on my Dads side were 1st cousins if thats anything to go by. The whole family seemed to live in small villages so from how I reckon they all must have been related somehow. Mary

I have first cousins marrying in my tree. I downloaded a gedcom file, showing this and GR has accepted it, so the mutual ancestors only appear once. Brenda

Some cultures still do it!! Apparantly has devastating consequences on their gene pool. Jacquie

My eldest brother married our first cousin...Our respective fathers are brothers. My brother and our cousin look like my father's side of the family, blonde with blue eyes and the also have the same blood group. I have my mothers dark eyes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my nieces. They are two beautiful blondes with blue eyes. Lindy;-)))

Because my direct family tree has "stuck" I have been going sideways and then backwards. This has developed into a one name study which goes way back. In 1549, one Robert Holden wished to marry his cousin Mary. He applied to the local Priest for a dispensation from Rome. The Priest (stupidly as it turned out) refused to forward the request to Rome as Robert was the child of first cousins, Mary was the child of first cousins, they shared both sets of Grandparents and had only two sets of Gt Grandparents. Robert was furious and turned Protestant so he could marry his cousin Mary and spitefully gave evidence against the Priest who had refused his request, which led to the Priest being arrested and imprisoned. Robert and Mary had at least nine children, all of whom married and had children. The Holden family in general make a nonsense of the idea that inbreeding is genetically wrong - as a previous reply said, they lived in an isolated community and married each other from a very limited gene pool for about 300 years with no ill-effects apparently.

My husbands grand parents were 1st Cousins - however his father is the product of an affair of his father as the grandparents never concieved ( I wonder why lol ) much happiness debi

My Father's parents were first cousins but I am not sure whether they married in Scotland or England. Nothing seems to have gone too wrong with the genes!

Hi My husbands great grand parents were first cousins Margaretxx

Hi, my father's grandparents were first cousins. It cuts the family tree searching down a bit but it is impossible to add the whole story on this site. Fortunately my family tree programme will allow it and has a facility to supress the duplication in earlier years - saves on the printouts which become the same with their grandparents. Anne PS I have two eyes, ears, and the right number of fingers etc etc!!

The Royal Family have done it for centuries. Does there seem to be anything wrong with them physically or mentally ??

I have a lot of cases of first cousins marrying first cousins in one line in particular and some of these were really strong first cousins and would have shared a lot of genes as two brothers from one of my lines married two sisters from another, the first couple had a son who married the daughter of the second couple and they also had a daughter who married the son of the second couple. These first cousins went on to have large familys and none of their offspring seemed to have any problems mentally or physically (to my knowledge) and all married eventually and had children of their own. Shaz :-)

Thanks all for replying. My nan was the product of my great grandparents and there was nothing wrong with her, but my great grandparents did also have three other children who were disabled and all died young. Such a shame but as people have said you can be very unlucky when you marry your first cousin.

I've got lots in my tree that married 1st cousins, i think it was quite common, and lots of them seem to have the wife as a lot older, perhaps parents wanted them married off and "arranged the marriages"! Kim

Weren't Victoria & Albert cousins?! My Mum and step-dad are first cousins too! More common than you think...!

My grandparents were 1st cousins. They went on to have 6 children, all who were fit and healthy. I have only found evidence of one child, their 2nd, who seemed to have died young. Maggy

My father's parents were first cousins.[ Hawkins= Mersh]. Not only that, but grandfather's cousin [Hawkins] married grandmother's sister [Mersh]. Try putting that on a tree! Actually it works OK-- you just get the same great grandparents appearing twice!! Wendy

Hi I think the genetic problems are more likely to arise if the marriage of first cousins is a trend rather than a one-off - or if (see another thread) the parents are actually both siblings (i.e 2 brothers marry 2 sisters, or a brother & sister marry a sister & brother). It increases the risk of a nasty gene being able to show itself - it doesn't guarantee that it will. (Down to the probability-maths of it!). Christine