John Palmer wrote: > Hello Folks, > Horrified at finding a notable first-cousin marriage > in Wirksworth in 1872, I looked up the matter in Wikipedia > to find the following: > "England maintained a small but stable proportion of > cousin marriages for centuries, with proportions in 1875 > estimated by George Darwin at 3.5 percent for the middle classes > and 4.5 percent for the nobility, though this had declined to under > 1 percent in the 20th century. > Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were a preeminent example". > The United States has the only bans on cousin marriage in the Western world. Hallo I believe it is only certain States that have a total ban. Others discourage such marriages. Cousins who wish to marry go to a State which allows first cousin marriages. I have just found two mid 19th century first cousin marriages in a family I'm researching at the moment. They are not the first I have found. The decline in first cousin marriages is probably due to people moving around more and meeting people from different parts of the country. I don't think it's due to any repugnance at marrying someone quite closely related. The only first cousin marriages that might cause any birth problems might be where both the bride's and the groom's parents were also first cousin or where two brothers had married two sisters from otherwise unrelated families. Connie in London