Cousin marriage

“ If, as he believes, "The parents of adult children are on the average more alike than first cousins, then it follows that any evils which may flow from first cousin marriage depend not on likeness of characters, but on sameness of stock." ”

“ Certain of the features which follow from the cross-cousin marriage may be the result of another marriage regulation. In some parts of the world there exists a custom of exchanging brothers and sisters, so that, when a man marries a woman, his sister marries his wife's brother. As the result of this custom the mother's brother and the father's sister's husband will come to be one and the same person, and the father's sister will become also the mother's brother's wife. ”

“ The third group holds that cousin marriages in themselves, especially if not carried through too many generations, are not harmful, but that if any hereditary tendency to malformation or disease exists in the family of the parents, this tendency, inherited through both parents is strongly intensified in the offspring, and that consequently an increased percentage of the offspring of cousin marriage may be afflicted with hereditary diseases. ”

“ The frequency varies greatly in different communities, from perhaps .5 per cent of first cousin marriages in the northern and western states to 5 per cent, and probably higher, in isolated mountain or island communities. The average of first cousin marriage in the United States is probably not greater than one per cent. ”

“ Why, to begin with, the lady is my cousin.”
“I know,” said the lady, sadly.
“It seems to me you found out every thing, though how the deuce you contrived it is more than I can tell,” said Leon.
“Our faculties are very much sharpened where our interests are concerned,” said the lady, sententiously.
“Now, see here,” said Leon. “It is true that this lady is my cousin, and that she is an heiress, and that I am infernally hard up, and that my father sent me here, and that I have been talking with the solicitors; but I swear to you the subject of marriage has not once been mentioned.” ”

“ I have never wholly approved of cousin-marriages; and I looked with something like dismay on their growing intimacy. That was later, of course; at first she was like a demented creature, saying the wildest and wickedest things. ”

“ From this passage we learn that a man is expected to marry his cross-cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, in the lifetime of his uncle, and that on his uncle's death he is expected to marry the widow, his mother-in-law. Thus once more we are informed, on the best authority, that marriage with a mother-in-law, the widow of a mother's brother, follows as a consequence from a previous marriage with a cross-cousin, her daughter. ”

“ Although American writers have had little part in the theoretical discussions, our legislators have been active, so that the statutes of every state specify degrees of kinship within which marriage is prohibited. In at least sixteen states the prohibition is extended to include first cousins. In New Hampshire such marriages are void and the children are illegitimate. Other states in which first-cousin marriage is forbidden are Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. ”

“ Marriages with the daughter of a father's brother or of a mother's brother are especially orthodox and popular in Egypt, and different degrees of preference for marriage with different classes of cousin would produce just such a social need as would have led to the definite distinction of the different kinds of cousin from one another by means of descriptive terms. ”

“ I am very fond of my cousin, very fond of all my cousins. But marriage is a different thing. I am inclined to think that cousins had better not marry.'
'You should have said that before. But it is nonsense. Cousins marry every day. There is nothing about it either in the Bible or the Prayer-book. She will die.'
Aunt Polly said this in a tone of voice which made it a matter of regret that she should not have been educated for Drury Lane. But as she said it, he could not avoid thinking of Julia's large ankles, and red cheeks, and of the new green hat and feather. ”

“ Marriage is prohibited between cousins, between a man and his adopted sister, his sister-in-law, or mother-in-law. Union with a second cousin is also tabooed. It is said that offenders would be cut off from the village ”

“ All this must ‘fall to the distaff’ and go out of the family unless my daughter should marry her cousin, Leonidas Force. He also has recently inherited a considerable estate, joining this, and, like this, with a long sea front. It is not always that young people submit to be guided by their elders in the matter of marriage, but I am happy to say that my boy and girl have very readily taken our views of the case and will follow them. So they will probably be married 26 very early in the new year, and the old ancestral estate will not pass out of the old family name. ”

“ He wants me to make the usual sort of marriage with a—oh, you know the sort of female child fellows like me are supposed to marry—his mind is running on it now, and he actually tackled me about it last night. He's got the young person all ready—that's the sort of man he is—my cousin, Grace Ettien. ”

“ It can do no possible harm; it must be my cousin, not Captain Parsons, who makes you my wife. But then, Grace, it may be binding too, requiring nothing more than the sanctification of the union in the regular way, and it may—it will—create a difficulty for your aunt which should go very near to extinguishing her. ”

“ However the coefficient of attraction between persons of the same surname would undoubtedly be well marked in every degree of kinship, and conversely there are few same-name marriages in which some kinship, however remote, does not exist.
The proportion of mixed generation cousin marriages (1-1/2 cousins, 2-1/2 cousins, etc.) is always smaller than the even generation marriages of either the next nearer or more remote degrees. ”

“ It is right that you should know the whole truth. Until I make that young lady below my wife, she is as much under your care as under mine. That was agreed on between us, and that you know."
"That I do know, and shall remember as much for her sake as for yourn and for mine," answered the honest fellow, with a note of deep feeling in his voice. "There's only one consideration, Mr. Barclay, that worrits me. I onderstood you to say, sir, that your honour has a cousin who's a clergyman that's willing to marry ye right away out of hand."
"We must get the consent of the aunt first." ”

“ You have introduced a topic on which our natures are at variance—a topic we should never discuss: the very name of love is an apple of discord between us. If the reality were required, what should we do? How should we feel? My dear cousin, abandon your scheme of marriage—forget it.” ”

“ The wife always feels that she belongs to her father and brothers much more than to her husband, and, to secure a certain community of feeling, it is quite a rule to marry a first cousin if one is procurable. ”

“ "Yes, and I had heard it before. But what is that to me? If there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew, I shall certainly not be kept from it by knowing that his mother and aunt wished him to marry Miss de Bourgh. You both did as much as you could in planning the marriage. Its completion depended on others. If Mr. Darcy is neither by honour nor inclination confined to his cousin, why is not he to make another choice? And if I am that choice, why may not I accept him?" ”

“ However unwise the removal, in England, of the prohibition against marrying a deceased wife’s sister, may have been—because she is so frequently a husband’s housemate—there is little reason, in America, in discouraging the marriage of first cousins. In the cases of aunt and nephew, and of uncle and niece, the incest-relation is possibly a distinct consideration. ”

“ Thus far the blood relations whom a man is forbidden to marry and compelled to avoid, are his own mother, his own daughter, and his own sisters. But to this list some people add a man’s female cousins or at least certain of them; for many races draw a sharp line of distinction between cousins according {89} as they are children of two brothers or of two sisters or of a brother and a sister, and while they permit or even prefer marriage with certain cousins, they absolutely forbid marriage with certain others. ”

“ There is, however, a certain amount of prejudice against first cousins on the father’s side marrying, but the reason generally given for this is that when a girl’s parents have to consider the question of her marriage they naturally try to dispose of her outside the family, in order that her price may increase the wealth of the family, not merely transfer it from one brother to another. ”

“ Failing a cousin of this sort, he must marry his aunt or his niece, or any near relative. If his father’s brother has a daughter, and insists upon him marrying her he cannot refuse; and this whatever may be the woman’s age. ”

“ Cousins were allowed to marry but not nearer relatives. As a rule a widow was not permitted to remarry except a brother of her deceased husband and in case she had children by the first marriage, then it was the duty of the brother-in-law to marry her that the children might not be without the care and protection of a father. ”

“ In the little that I have seen of the world, I have observed that cousins—when they happen to be brought together under interesting circumstances—can remember their relationship, and forget their relationship, just as it suits them. “Is your cousin a married lady?” ”

“ Surely, now, these are the same for the woman, She cannot marry her uncle, either by blood or affinity. Her aunt's husband is as much her uncle by marriage as her father or mother's brother is by blood. ”

“ If your aunt-in-law is your aunt, your sister-in-law must be your sister.
No man may ally himself with any "that is near of kin to him."
A sister is a near kinswoman v. 12, 13.
Near kinswomen of the wife are expressly prohibited v. 17.
The reason against marrying a wife's daughter or granddaughter is, that they are her "near kinswomen." So is her sister. Marriage with a brother's wife or an uncle's wife is pronounced "an unclean thing."
How then can marriage with a sister's husband be clean? How can you prove any difference between the relationships? ”

“ Is the classificatory system of relationships after all more logical in an important respect than our own? Is there really a wide physical difference between the relationship of cousins who are offspring of a brother and sister respectively and that of cousins whose parents respectively were two brothers or two sisters? Ought marriage in the one case to be allowed or even encouraged, and in the other case as rigidly forbidden as if it were incestuous? ”

“ The only objection to the intermarriage of cousins is one that depends entirely on similarity of race peculiarities. Sometimes cousins inheriting each from different races, are physiologically as much of diverse blood as if their parents had not been related, and in that case there isn't the slightest objection to marriage. Now, Caroline, though her father is your mother's brother, inherits evidently the Selwyn blood. She's all her mother, or rather her grandmother, who was a celebrated beauty. Caroline is a Selwyn, every inch, and you are as free to marry her as any woman you can meet. ”

“ In this uncouth language, and in this artless manner, were these leagues of amity commenced. Such an intimacy was never formed unless the object of it were a kind of favourite with the parents, who immediately commenced uncle and aunt to the new cousin. This, however, was a high privilege, only to be kept by fidelity and good conduct. If you exposed your new cousin’s faults, or repeated her minutest secrets, or by any other breach of constancy lost favour, it was as bad as refusing a challenge; you were coldly received every where, and could never regain your footing in society. ”

“ Dearest cousin, trust to me—wilt thou not? And, dearest, sweetest cousin, love me, and be my beautiful wife. Nay, shake not thy loveliest head. Have I been too hasty in urging my love? I have known thee, and loved thee, for so many years; thou hast, thy beautiful spirit has ever, night and day, been near me, the light of my life; but I have frightened thee by my impetuosity—and thou canst never love me? ”

“ A man may not marry his mother; who would venture to argue from such differences as those mentioned, that a woman might marry her father? When, therefore, two brothers may not marry the same woman, why should it be argued from such differences that two sisters might be married to the same man?
It will now, I trust, be sufficiently apparent that it was the intention of the Divine Lawgiver to forbid marriage with a wife's sister, and on the same principle, with a man's own daughter, grandmother, or niece, although none of these relatives are expressly prohibited. ”

“ He that whines for a lass
Is an ignorant ass,
For a bumper has not its fellow.
But if you would have me marry my cousin, say the word, and I'll do't. Wilfull will do't, that's the word. Wilfull will do't, that's my crest,—my motto I have forgot.
LADY. My nephew's a little overtaken, cousin, but 'tis drinking your health. O' my word, you are obliged to him -
SIR WIL. IN VINO VERITAS, aunt. If I drunk your health to-day, cousin,—I am a Borachio.—But if you have a mind to be married, say the word and send for the piper; Wilfull will do't. If not, dust it away, and let's have t'other round. ”