Is the above incest? If so then I descend out of a lot of incestrest relationships. To me marring your first cousin is not incest. If you can trace your ancestry back to the 16th and 17th century then you will find that one or more of your direct ancestors married first cousins. At the beginning of this country your family worked, traveled etc together and many times they were the only people that they knew. So they married their cousins. I find that people are shocked and ashamed when they discover that they descend out of first cousins. I have so many ancestors that did this that I am my own cousin and so are my father and my children. The song "I am my own grand pa" has a lot of truth in it. I understand that today there are some states that will not let 1st cousins marry. Any body know which states are these? My fathers side is more inbred than my mothers side. I am not nuts yet or maybe I am and just do not know it. I am not about to rewritght history on my family if someone does not like it that they descend out of cousins then they will just have to lump it. You never know what you will find when you hunt dead ancestors. Glee

may I add to Glee's comments. More first cousins getting married in lines with money than not. Reason being, they wanted to keep the money in the lines and the lines pure. Mass. pilgrims among them. Among my lines, my Mass. lines most commonly remarried into family. Debbie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Glee Krapf" <gleek@ptd.net> To: <CherokeeGene-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 11:22 AM Subject: [CherokeeGeneCommunity] first cousins marrying > Is the above incest? > If so then I descend out of a lot of incestrest relationships. > To me marring your first cousin is not incest. > If you can trace your ancestry back to the 16th and 17th century then you > will find that one or more of your direct ancestors married first cousins. > At the beginning of this country your family worked, traveled etc together > and many times they were the only people that they knew. So they married > their cousins. I find that people are shocked and ashamed when they > discover that they descend out of first cousins. I have so many ancestors > that did this that I am my own cousin and so are my father and my > children. The song "I am my own grand pa" has a lot of truth in it. I > understand that today there are some states that will not let 1st cousins > marry. Any body know which states are these? My fathers side is more > inbred than my mothers side. I am not nuts yet or maybe I am and just do > not know it. I am not about to rewritght history on my family if someone > does not like it that they descend out of cousins then they will just have > to lump it. You never know what you will find when you hunt dead > ancestors. > Glee > > ==== CherokeeGene Mailing List ==== > This list is for Genealogy related conversations > Your supporting website http://www.wvi.com/~wb/Cherokee1.html > Please Good manors and no flaming others > For Culture, ridges; bumps; skin tones; or Language lessons Please visit > CHEROKEE-L-request@rootsweb.com > You can also find what you need search the archives > or to get off this list via web site below > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Ethnic-Native/CherokeeGene.html > Listowner = CherokeeGene-admin@rootsweb.com > >