To it is slightly odd and creepy...

[JustForMe]

...to marry your first cousin?

It got me thinking after watching Big Fat Gypsy Weddings

Well, it happens at the two extremes of the social spectrum - small, isolated communities where there is little in the way of choice, and the upper echelons, when they want to keep property, titles and assets within the family.

Obviously it happened with relative frequency in royal circles, and also amongst, for example, the big plantation owners in antebellum South.

As an isolated incident, it is not going to cause major genetic problems - it's only when it happens continually amongst the same group of family members for generations that problems start to arise.

Have I misunderstood my biology lessons completely or is not this the case:

the marriage (or to be exact, the procreation) between close relatives does not cause disability, it increases the risk of disability

the reason it does this is because of the increased risk of the baby carrying two genes for a certain condition rather than one

not because it suddenly creates new genes that weren't there in the parents

ds carries the gene for a genetic disorder

if he marries someone with the same gene he will be at greater risk of passing on this disorder than if he marries someone who doesn't

it follows that if he marries a cousin who has the same gene, he will be at statistically greater risk than if he married just anyone, because statistically there is less chance that any random stranger will carry the same gene

but not at greater risk than if he marries someone else with the same gene, say somebody he meets at a support group

in fact, as far as disability goes, he would be far better off marrying a cousin on his father's side (non-carriers) than somebody from the support group

but of course there are social sides to the argument to- and those will differ from family to family

I would say socially it would be close to incest if one of my children married a cousin on their mother's side (very close family, brought up almost as siblings) but unlikely to have any social consequences if they married a cousin on their father's side

My parents are first cousins and there have been no problems as a result.

I'm with the OP. It's odd, creepy and and I thought this had died out with the invention of the bicycle.

Exactly what cory said.

It is legal to marry a first cousin so what's the fuss about?

Its actually perfectly legal to do so, however, you cannot marry your 2nd cousin (legally)

Its perfectly acceptable in other cultures to do such a thing, somethings we do, in our culture, are frowned uppon in others...

Personally I couldn't do it but then again, my cousins arew all female!!

I live in and work in an area with a high percentage of south Asian families and first cousin marriages are almost the "norm". As a consequence there is a higher than normal rate of babies born with genetic problems (lots of research has been done to validate this statement).

If I recall, weren't Victoria & Albert first cousins? It's an idea that should have expired with the Victorians, it can cause heartbreak for the families involved.

I know of two families where this is the case. In the one case the husband and wife looked alike - freaked me out!

bearpear I don't know if you're in Bradford but I do recall a conversation with a consultant from there who specialised in genetic problems caused by inbreeding, who said it was a huge problem for the local maternity/childrens' units.

My uncle and aunt are first cousins although they made the decision not to have kids. Caused a lot of upset with older family members at time but they have always been accepted as a normal married couple to everyone else.

DH is very close to his cousins (like brother and sister) and they were having this conversation recently about how it is legal for them to marry and the thought repulsed them.

There's a storyline in hollyoaks at the moment involving first cousins (i think) and must admit, made me go ...

Love a bit of trashy telly though so am interested to see how it pans out.

With traveller families in Ireland, traditionally a lot of them were migrant workers going from farm to farm. If a marriage was arranged between two families and a worker or earner was taken from one family it was the norm to replace him with another worker. So you would often find a double wedding between two families, a brother and sister marrying a brother and sister ifyswim.
Cousins marrying has only become taboo in the UK since after the first world war, so in human development terms very recently. There is nothing sick or miscreant about it, just culturally acceptable or not. The aristocracy still continue the practice because it helps them to retain their wealth and they don't fancy plebs. They think we stink. Which I admit to, but with the help of soap, water and deodorant I should be able to eliminate. I'm going to stop now..................

My maternal grandparents are first cousins. My two great grandmothers on my mum's side were sisters. My maternal grandmother's sister also married my maternal grandfather's brother. One of my maternal grandfather's brothers also married my maternal grandmother's father's sister. It gets very confusing on a family tree.

I also had a passionate love affair with my 2nd cousin once removed. We'd probably would be together today if the timings in our lives had been better.

The royal family are all inter related. Quite common I think.