Second Cousin Marriage
I found some ancestors on my mother's side who were married second cousins (ie they shared a pair of great grandparents).
Then I read something on Wikipedia that surprised me:
"In earlier times, and still today in some cultures, it was relatively common for cousins to get married. Since people tended not to move far from their place of birth, the closest eligible spouse was often a cousin. As a result, it has been estimated that up to 80% of all marriages in history have been between second cousins or closer."
80 % ?????
Also,
"In 1846 the Governor of Massachusetts appointed a commission to study "idiots" in the state which implicated cousin marriage as being responsible for idiocy. Within the next two decades numerous reports appeared coming to similar conclusions, including for example by the Kentucky Deaf and Dumb Asylum, which concluded that cousin marriage resulted in deafness, blindness, and idiocy."
===
"Despite being contradicted by other studies like those of George Darwin and Alan Huth in England and Robert Newman in New York, the report's conclusions were widely accepted.
These developments led to thirteen states and territories passing cousin marriage prohibitions by the 1880s. ... by the period up until the mid-1920s the number of bans had more than doubled."
===
"The United States has the only bans on cousin marriage in the Western world."
===
"A bill to repeal the ban on first-cousin marriage in Minnesota was introduced by Phyllis Kahn in 2003, but it died in committee. By training Kahn is a biophysicist and holds a PhD from Yale. Republican Minority Leader Marty Seifert criticized the bill in response, saying it would "turn us into a cold Arkansas."
Then I read something on Wikipedia that surprised me:
"In earlier times, and still today in some cultures, it was relatively common for cousins to get married. Since people tended not to move far from their place of birth, the closest eligible spouse was often a cousin. As a result, it has been estimated that up to 80% of all marriages in history have been between second cousins or closer."
80 % ?????
Also,
"In 1846 the Governor of Massachusetts appointed a commission to study "idiots" in the state which implicated cousin marriage as being responsible for idiocy. Within the next two decades numerous reports appeared coming to similar conclusions, including for example by the Kentucky Deaf and Dumb Asylum, which concluded that cousin marriage resulted in deafness, blindness, and idiocy."
===
"Despite being contradicted by other studies like those of George Darwin and Alan Huth in England and Robert Newman in New York, the report's conclusions were widely accepted.
These developments led to thirteen states and territories passing cousin marriage prohibitions by the 1880s. ... by the period up until the mid-1920s the number of bans had more than doubled."
===
"The United States has the only bans on cousin marriage in the Western world."
===
"A bill to repeal the ban on first-cousin marriage in Minnesota was introduced by Phyllis Kahn in 2003, but it died in committee. By training Kahn is a biophysicist and holds a PhD from Yale. Republican Minority Leader Marty Seifert criticized the bill in response, saying it would "turn us into a cold Arkansas."