The Surprising Truth About Cousins And Marriage

#1 Cousins Marrying Cousins

First cousin marriage is far more common, and far less dangerous, than many of us have been led to believe, even though it is still illegal in much of the United States.

#2 Genetics Forum Rules Cousins Having Children Is Safe

We've been told that first cousins would have children with birth defects or other long-term risks, which is now proven to be not totally true. Also, if you include second cousins in the mix of couples hooking up, according to the Clinical Genetics Handbook, the increased risks with regards to having children are nearly non-existent.

#3 Banning Cousin Marriages

While there have been instances of the banning of marriage between cousins at various points through history, such as the Roman Catholics banning the practice for a time starting with the Council of Agde in 506 AD, for the most part, marriage among cousins has been popular as long as people have been getting married. In fact, it is estimated that as many as 80% of the marriages in human history have been between first or second cousins.

#4 The Ban Started In The 1860s

This switch in cousin marriage acceptance began in earnest in some parts of the Western world in the mid-19th century. Specifically, until the 1860s or so, first cousins commonly married in Europe and the U.S. In fact, Charles Darwin, Mr. Natural Selection himself, was married to his first cousin Emma Wedgwood.

#5 States Began Banning Cousin Marriages After The Civil War

The practice soon fell out of fashion in the United States. Although never outlawed in England, during the second half of the 19th century, many states began to ban marriages between first cousins, as part of a larger movement after the Civil War for greater state involvement in a variety of areas, including education, health, and safety.

#6 The United States Was Rebelling Against Britain And Immigrants

Researchers note that the distinction in marriage bans between England and the U.S. may be explained by the fact that, in the United States, the practice "was associated not with the aristocracy and upper middle class since Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were second cousins, but with much easier targets like immigrants and the rural poor." They wanted to stop immigrants and those they considered unstable from reproducing and continuing the cycle.

#7 Kansas Banned The Practice First The The Others Fell Into Line

Regardless, cousin marriage bans began popping up across the states, with the first in Kansas (1858). Ohio, NH, NV, ND, SD, WA and WY banned the practice in the 1860s, and many more had enacted bans by the late 1920s. The most recent state to ban cousin marriage was Texas in 2005.

#8 Cousins Can Still Marry In 19 States Without Question Including FL, NY, And MS

Today, first cousins may not marry in AR, DE, IA, ID, KS, KY, LA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SD, TX, WA and WV. First cousin marriage is allowed without restriction in 19 states, and with some restrictions in AZ, IL, IN, ME, UT, WI, and NC, where while first cousins may marry, "double cousins" may not.

#9 The Government Believed The Practice Produced Several Child Birth Defects

The distinction lies in the debate about whether or not there is an increased risk that the partners' shared genes will produce an increased chance that their offspring will have recessive, undesirable traits. A recent report on births in a British-Pakistani community (where first cousin marriage is very common) demonstrated that first cousin children there were twice as likely to be born with "potentially life-threatening birth defects" as compared with the children of unrelated parents.

#10 The Risk Is No Higher For A Birth Defect Than It Is For A Woman Over 40 To Have A Child

For your reference, this increase in birth defect rates is about the same as the increased risk of a woman having a baby when she is 40 vs. when she is 30. Proponents here point out that few would advocate banning a 40-year-old woman from having children. They also point to recent testing that placed the increased risk of spina bifida and cystic fibrosis at only 1.7% - 2.8% higher than for children of unrelated parents.

#11 Many Countries Accept Cousins Marrying

In some societies, first cousin marriage is traditional and well-accepted, although many make a distinction between "cross-cousins" and "parallel cousins."

Cross cousins have parents who are siblings but of the opposite sex. The parents of parallel cousins are also siblings but are of the same sex

#12 Several Middle Eastern Countries Encourage Cousin Marriages

This is not very likely to happen in modern societies that practice first-cousin marriage. In fact, in a number of countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Yemen and in the Palestinian Territories, paternal parallel cousin marriage is the preferred form of consanguineous marriage, and usually set up by the parents before the children are even born.

Cousin marriage is making a comeback in the U.S., as well, as more and more studies continue to debunk the overblown risks once commonly touted.

#13 Some Religions Have No Stance On The Practice And Never Did

Globally, cousin marriages are still going strong, with an estimated 10% of all marriages in the world being between cousins, and has high as 50% in some regions of the world. In addition to those countries mentioned above, the "overwhelming majority of cross-cousin marriages appear among the Islamic cultures of North Africa and those of West and Central Asia." First cousins marrying in 21st century America discover that many states no longer regulate the practice. Likewise, most sects of Christianity do not forbid it, which would be hard to do given cases like Isaac and Rebekah in the Book of Genesis. For instance, the Methodist Church has "no official position on marriage between cousins."

#14 There Can Be A Stigma Attached

Nonetheless, it's not easy being in a first cousin marriage in some regions of the world. As one man in such a relationship recently discussed, some members of the couple's immediate family no longer speak to them and have never met the couple's children. On top of that, he stated, "We don't typically tell folks. We told our daughters, "It's not something to be ashamed of, but [don't] tell your friends . . . people are fickle, and preteens and teens can be downright cruel."

#15 Cousins Who Married Throughout History

Some famous individuals who married their first cousins include: Albert Einstein (with his second wife Elsa), H.G. Wells (with Isabel Mary Wells), Saddam Hussein (with Sajida Talfah), Christopher Robin Miln and his wife Leslie (the former being of Winnie the Pooh fame), Franklin D. Roosevelt (Eleanor Roosevelt), Jerry Lee Lewis and cuz Myra Gale Brown, and Edgar Allen Poe with Virginia Clemm, among many, many others. A recent famous example of a second cousin marriage was between Rudy Giuliani and (his now ex-wife) Regina Peruggi. Kevin Bacon also married his cousin, Kyra Sedgwick.