In
a 30 December 2016 post on his blog, Genealogy’s Star, James Tanner
discussed whether there is a prohibition of cousins marrying: Can
you marry your cousin? What is or was the law?
James
described what the current law is in
Utah, where he lives. He also cited the restrictions imposed by the Roman
Catholic Church under Canon
Law. In both instances marriage is prohibited between first cousins, except
in very unusual circumstances.
I
wondered what the rules were for the Church of England, particularly in the 18th
and 19th centuries, since I have a few examples in my family of
first cousins marrying, including my own 4th great-grandparents –
married in 1791 in Devon, England. I had thought about the question before but
had not bothered to look up the answer.
In
my search for information I came across a paper on the subject by Jill Durey, The Church,
Consantuinity and Trollope, in the Churchman,
v. 122 (Summer 2008), pp. 125-46. The Churchman is the international journal of
theology produced by the (Anglican) Church Society.
The
Church of England, of course, was set up in 1534 specifically to allow Henry
VIII to dump his first wife and marry a cousin. He employed some devious means
to get around the prohibitions of the Catholic Church, setting up his own
church with different rules on the matter of marriage. In so doing he had his
daughter, Mary Tudor, from his first marriage, declared as illegitimate. (She
eventually got her own back after taking the thrown, when she annulled Henry’s
“divorce.” But that’s another story.)
In
any event, as part of the establishment of the Church of England,
marriage between cousins was allowed. Over the years there have been other
Church of England regulations that controlled who could marry who. I blogged
about one such example, on 15 September 2013, of a man who married his deceased
wife’s sister – Mistaken
Assumptions from Register Notes.
List
of prohibited unions in Church of England, and the changes made over time: Genetic and
Quantitative Aspects of Genealogy website - No cousins are
mentioned.
There
have been many studies about whether cousins marrying have an adverse
biological effect on offspring. Certainly inbreeding over long periods of time
can lead to unwanted and undesirable physical and or mental conditions.
Recessive traits can manifest themselves because the genetic makeup of the
individuals is similar. Offspring may be more likely to exhibit conditions that
might otherwise be overridden by more dominant traits. Where a family has no
prior history of birth defects or other deleterious conditions, though, it is
unlikely they would appear because of the union of closely-related cousins. It
is possible children may actually be healthier as a result of inheriting strong
attributes from both parents having similar familial traits.
The
idea of prohibiting the marriage of related people, of course, developed within
small tribes or communities to prevent inbreeding over several generations and
a general deterioration of the gene pool. It was a practice decided long before
the study of genetics but it was solidly based on observation. At any rate
almost every religion organized since has kept the policy in the form of rules
under which adherents must abide.
King
Henry made the exceptions acceptable by replacing the dominant religion in his
domain with a new one, certainly with his own personal intentions in mind. The
result was that the prohibition of cousin marriage was made acceptable for the
first time in Europe. It had long been allowed in Middle East. Marriage of
cousins was also permissible, and widely practiced in China for many centuries,
but has been banned under the current regime. In many parts of the world
culture plays at least as strong a role as religion.
In
the United States the rules are very different from state to state no doubt
based on the views of the original settlers.
In
Canada, the law is relatively simple and parallels, as one might have assumed,
the rules of the Church of England: “…persons
related by consanguinity, affinity or adoption are not prohibited from marrying
each other by reason only of their relationship, but 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. A marriage between persons who are related in
this manner is void.” From Marriage (Prohibited)
Act.
As
James Tanner pointed out, the subject is worth investigating in the various
parts of the world where family research is being undertaken in order to
understand the legalities of inter-cousin marriage but in particular how local
rules may have impacted particular family members.
Other References:
See
these articles for more references on the subject.
Cousin marriage (Wikipedia) The
maps shown above were sourced from this website.
Prohibited
degree of kinship (Wikipedia)
Wayne Shepheard is a
volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling
four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number
of articles about various aspects of genealogy in several family history
society journals. He has also served as an editor of two such publications.
Wayne provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated
