When did marrying a cousin become socially unacceptable?

[LionBird]

I'm a big Agatha Christie fan and noticed there are quite a few references to cousins being in a relationship. I'm rereading Taken at the Flood currently, which is set in 1946, and the main character is engaged to her cousin and nobody seems to think it's strange! Obviously it was quite common in royal circles too in the 19th century but post-WW2 isn't that long ago so I'm not sure how and when it became unacceptable to have a relationship with a cousin - can anyone shed some light on this?

FFS. Read the thread.

Hæmophilia arose in Victoria's bloodline, all the cases can be traced back to her, see the family tree I posted above. The generally accepted cause of this is the age of Victoria's father when she was conceived. There is no hæmophila in the bloodlines of Victoria's mother.

Which is absolutely meaningless in a wider discussion.

A very rare factor deficiency was diagnosed in our family in the 50s. They couldn't work out which parent was the carrier. Strong advice was given about refraining from cousin marriages.

Strong looks?

Nowadays genetic testing would be able to identify carriers and affected fetuses.

No but how would you know ?I will have lots of second and third cousins in Ireland if I had randomly met one of them it's entirely possible we would never find out we were related as my Dad moved with his family to England when he was s 11_and he's 82 now and doesn't keep in touch with his cousins

I watched Cause of Death recently that had Asian 'close relatives' that had married and 3 of the 5 children had died (in early adulthood) due to genetic issues.

If you think that's bad, wait until you read about half brother and sister falling in love and having children because they had no idea they were related.

My son could easily have ended up with his half sister as we had no contact with his biological father after he was about 3.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/15/cousin-marriages-cited-as-significant-factor-bradford-child-deaths
It is a big problem in Bradford, on the decline but a big problem.

Eh, ask.

You see I'd probably see the resemblance, even with 3rd cousins you can see it in our family. We were once contacted by a distant cousin after they had done some family research, he was a complete stranger to us, but the moment you saw him you could see the family resemblance(he looked very much like my brothers).

I have a cousin I've never met, but I found them on Facebook and they look just like my uncle. There is no mistake who their father is.

I would probably question someone who looked like family.

(apols not read the thread) We had a marriage of cousins in family after WW1. Grab a man where you could, I suppose.

Article about the dangers and calling for it to be illegal Mathew Syed Sunday Times a few weeks ago.

Choices were much more limited back in the day. 150 years ago, there'd have been plenty of families who stayed in the same area their entire lives. You simply didn't meet anyone else.
There was also a bit of "better the devil you know". Marrying a known quantity was less risky for the woman than marrying into an unknown family. And for richer families especially, if you married a relation, you were "keeping the money in the family."

Marrying within families became rarer as people travelled away from their birthplaces more often, and also as science progressed and revealed the potential risks of marrying a close relation.

Why would you do that unless you had the same last name and looked alike ?
I don't normally go round asking peoples if we are related

There is a first cousin marriage in my family, much older cousins of my mum. They grew up on opposite sides of the world, didn’t know each other as children. Caused a massive issue when they married to the point neither set of parents attended the wedding. This was the 1970’s so I think not marrying cousins has been frowned upon for a while socially, even if it is legal.

I know several married couples in the UK who are first cousins. The way some men seem to pro-create I'm surprised more half siblings don't accidentally marry. Maybe a DNA test like Iceland should become the norm.

I think that is variable. My eldest looks like one of his uncles (his father's brother) and his children. My other 3 don't look like any of their cousins, they don't look particularly alike either, one son is 5'7" and his "little" brother is 6'3", I don't think anyone would jump to the conclusion they are close relatives.

Only about 3-6% increase for any medical abnormality so heart specific would be a very very small increase in likelihood

When people started looking like the Habsburg family and having the brain cells of a demented squirrel.
Inbreeding in humans is foolish, unnecessary and driven by pure stupidity. You only have to look at what it did to the Habsburg family and what it’s done to German Shepherds to see it’s needlessly foolish to breed with anyone closely related to you.

It took multiple generations of marriages of first cousins and uncle/nieces to get the full Hapsburg Effect though.

In my family history we have a case where double first cousins (two brothers married two sisters in the previous generation) married with no apparent ill effect. But they were very lucky. They were a farming family who would have had a limited pool to draw on.

George V and Queen Mary were cousins (second cousins I think?). And didn't Lord Mountbatten want his granddaughter to marry Charles, as recently as the 1970s?

Do you have first hand experience of haemophilia? Our family carry haemophilia A.

In my case:
My maternal grandmother carries the gene, as do both her daughters.
My mother carries the gene - none of her children have haemophilia but her two daughters carry the gene and her son does not have haemophilia.
I carry the gene - none of my children carry it.
My sister carries the gene - her son does not have haemophilia and the daughters are yet to be tested as young girls.
My brother does not have haemophilia and therefore no concern.

My aunt has a son with haemophilia. He has chosen not to have children. Her daughter is a carrier and has a son without haemophilia and a daughter who carries the gene.

People do realise. In fact people over estimate the increased prevalence of birth defects. Only a 3-6% increase

I stand corrected! Apologies!

Lots of people in relationships don’t get married. You’d have to make relationships between cousins illegal and there are so many, it would be impossible.

Nicely encapsulating many things wrong with this country

I believe, IIUC, that by the time you're dealing with third cousins the genetics really aren't a problem (unless there have been generations of close inbreeding on one or both sides). It will be the same as having children with a stranger. Don't know enough about it to remember why or how it works, though.

Ask about their family in general, while getting to know them, not straight to 'are we related?'. 😂