My brother married our first cousin and their children are normal. My aunt married her first cousin and one of the four children is mentally handicapped. Facts of the matter is that IF brother and sister were having children the chances of these children being mentally and physically normal is highly unlikely. Do the research. Cousins' marrying cousin's is not at all unusual. It's happened in a large number of families. Just look at the southeastern Kentucky Brocks. There are so many of them there that they can marry a cousin several times removed and still have the Brock surname. Joyce Reece -----Original Message----- >From: Glee Krapf <gleek@ptd.net> >Sent: Feb 15, 2006 2:22 PM >To: CherokeeGene-L@rootsweb.com >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 >