I am not aware that first cousin marriages have ever been illegal in South Africa. This has always seemed odd to me as well as there is a blood relationship between them, whereas some of the forbidden marriages would have been perfectly fine, even if the other's spouse was still alive, as long as they were divorced of course. But I think many of those restrictions were put in place strictly based on some sort of religious notion which had nothing to do with blood relationship or genetics (which was obviously not even known about in those times). Of course, knowing what we do today about DNA and genetics many of those illogical restrictions could be scrapped. On 7 April 2015 at 07:28, Laquita Belinfante via <south-africa@rootsweb.com> wrote: > Hello Bart. This is most informative. > > In the BELINFANTE I find since 1526, 23 instances of 1st cousins marrying, > the last being my paternal 2nd Great Grandparents Aron and Hanna X 1838 > Amsterdam, The Netherlands. They were Jewish. Also my mother's younger > sister married her 1st cousin in 1958 in Johannesburg. They have 5 > children, > all perfectly normal, as are the 10 great grandchildren and no infantile > deaths or mis-carriages. > > Lucky > > > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > http://www.avast.com > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SOUTH-AFRICA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

On Apr 6, 2015, at 11:27 PM, Pat Brown via wrote: > I am not aware that first cousin marriages have ever been illegal in South > Africa. Nor me, but it seems it was socially taboo even for distant cousins. For example, Cecil John Rhodes was in love with Janey Rhodes my g reat hrandmother - and they met for frequent vacatosn and funl but never married "because they were cousins". But they are really distant cousins vie great grandfathers being brothers ir soe such - nothing close at all. But if you want to know who is behind the times even in THIS century, it is the Yanks. Where I now live in WA state it is illegal for first cousins to marry and in Texas it is not only illegal but is a criminal offense! IN Texas the ban was only made in 2005. Talk about crazy. Before the USA civil war there was no ban. It has been added a few states at a time since t hen by ridiculous claims written by fools but believed despite real papers to the contrary. Americans can be such terrible sheeple I am afraid. Here's a map of the stupidity, the dark blueshaded areas see sense, not the rest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage_law_in_the_United_States_by_state By the way the originator of genetics and evolution was Darwin, and he and his wife were first cousins:-) Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were first cousins. In Europe only Austria Hungary and Spain banned cousin marriage in 19th century. But the Christian church made it taboo in some places and that has to be where it originates in South Africa as a taboo. Heres a world map of current first cousin restrictions, again dark blue is marriage allowed, red not, marroon criminal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage#/media/File:CousinMarriageWorld.svg Namaste, Irene -- Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom. P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220. www.Furryboots.info (Info on Feline health, genetics, nutrition & homeopathy) "Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."

Hello: It was interesting to note that an adopted brother and adopted sister (knowingly) unrelated by blood, having the same adoptive parents, can marry, which makes sense. If one takes a county like Lincolnshire in England, where a core of people have lived for many hundreds of years, relatively undisturbed as such, all over in these small farming towns etc., a large portion of these people are all well related. Literally cousins marrying cousins of one degree or another, at least going down to the 3-4 generations, and then for some branches down the same again. === Leviticus 18 NIV: Unlawful Relations: No close relative. Your mother/sister/(Half). Your father’s: wife/mother’s sister/brother's wife (aunt). Your son’s: wife/dg/dg’s dg. Your brother’s wife. With both a woman and her dg, or her son’s or dg’s dg. Your wife’s sister (while your wife is living). === 1560 List [For male]: Essentially: No grandmother/aunt/(Mother/in-Law/Step)/(sister/in-Law/Step)/Dg. No Dg's Dg/Dg's Son's Wife/Wife's Dg/Wife's (Brother's or Sister's) or (Son’s or Dg's) Dg. No Son's: Dg/Wife/Son's Wife. No Brother's: Dg/Wife/Son's Wife. No Sister's: Dg/Son's Wife. === *So the one rule is whether up or down, you can’t marry an aunt/uncle/nephew/niece/grandparent/grandchild/or any of their spouses. Bart. -----Original Message-----