Dear Cousin, Will You Marry Me?

[Toad]

I'm reading a biography of General Andrew Atkinson Humphreys written by his son, Henry H. Humphreys, published in 1924. In it the younger Humphreys states of his parents "At Port Reading, Humphreys proposed to and was accepted by his cousin, Miss Rebecca Hollingsworth; they were married June 19, 1839." I'm pretty sure they were not first cousins but not sure how distant... (and by the way, Happy 181st Anniversary yesterday General and Mrs. Humphreys!)

My question is how common were "cousin marriages" in the pre-Civil War era? I'm guessing that it was perhaps not all that uncommon given population density and other societal factors, but I'm curious if any of you have any insights or other examples of cousin marriages of the era? Thanks in advance for any information you can share...

Photo of Humphreys from the book (which is in the public domain) a few years after his marriage:

 

[Cavalier]

@Toad I don't know how common they would have been then, but I believe European royalty married cousins pretty regularly. I think Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were cousins of some sort too.

The more I read about A.A.Humphreys the better I like him.

Thanks for posting this, John

 

[luinrina]

Robert E. Lee Jr. and his second wife, Juliet Carter, were cousins. Her grandfather was General Robert E. Lee's first cousin.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I think it was fairly common? There was sometimes an element of keeping the blue blood in the family to it and not just in the south. It could cause some problems after too many generations. You know the uber petite woman Barnum exploited, Lavina Warren? She had a genetic mutation that caused her to be incredibly small- her type of mutation was caused by too many generations of the same family intermarrying too closely. The Warrens were part of the whole New England ' Mayflower families ' that grew out of who-was-here-first, and why they were American VIPs. The south had another version, both tended to marry cousins.

I'm not sure when it became shocking to marry cousins? A doctor wrote a report apparently stating marrying your cousin could cause children of the marriage to be " imbeciles ", apparently all heck broke loose and by the 1880's laws were being passed against it?

 

[lupaglupa]

I think saying cousin marriages were "not uncommon" is a good way to put it. It didn't happen a lot but it happened often enough. I've found a few in my family, though usually second not first cousins. It's like all of the brothers who married sisters or other overlaps. People didn't travel much and the pool for potential spouses was small. If your cousins lived nearby and you saw them often, well, you formed bonds and those bonds led to marriage.

@JPK Huson 1863 asks a good question - just when did the (now disproved) theory that cousin marriages would lead to dire genetic mutations arise?

 

[Toad]

The more I read about A.A.Humphreys the better I like him

Yes, I couldn't agree more... I believe it was Assistant Secretary of War Charles Dana who considered Humphreys to be "the great soldier of the Army of the Potomac." (Charles A. Dana, "Recollections of the Civil War with the Leaders at Washington and in the Field in the Sixties")

 

[Toad]

@JPK Huson 1863 asks a good question - just when did the (now disproved) theory that cousin marriages would lead to dire genetic mutations arise?

I second that... a very good question indeed. And for that matter in my ample ignorance I didn't realize that the theory had been disproved, so would be interested in learning more about that as well.

 

[Paul Yancey]

General Richard Ewell was married to his cousin.

 

[lupaglupa]

Multiple people wrote about and opposed first cousin marriages in the US. The most influential voice seems to have been Dr. S.M. Bemiss who published a piece in the AMA Journal claiming the children of first cousins showed mental and physical "depravity." All the outcry led many states to pass laws against cousin marriages (though the laws differ in the details). Further studies done have shown the risks for children is these marriages are minimal (one person well known for these studies is Charles Darwin's son George). Current genetic studies show the child of a first cousin marriage has an increased risk of birth defects of about 1% - roughly the same risk a child of a 40-year-old mother faces.

Repeal of the prohibition of first cousin marriages in the US has recommended by various groups since the 1970s - in part because the current laws are so different between the states. Few states, however, have removed the laws. First cousin marriage continues to be legal and common in most other countries. The US seems to continue in the belief that such marriages are a cause of intellectual disabilities and many oppose repealing the laws on those grounds. When a bill was introduced in Minnesota to repeal the ban, one lawmaker opposed it because it "would turn us into a cold Arkansas."

 

[Cavalier]

@lupaglupa I had been under the impression that marrying to close to the blood line was the cause of hemophilia in royal offspring. Would this be incorrect also?

Thanks, John

Ps: It's kind of interesting that the lawmaker could get away with making a remark like that about people from Arkansas.

 

[lupaglupa]

@lupaglupa I had been under the impression that marrying to close to the blood line was the cause of hemophilia in royal offspring. Would this be incorrect also?

Thanks, John

Ps: It's kind of interesting that the lawmaker could get away with making a remark like that about people from Arkansas.

The hemophilia was passed along through genetics, its true, but marrying cousins didn't cause the hemophilia. It just ensured that the disease was circulated in the same group of families. The royal families of Europe intermarried for strategic reasons and when one family had hemophilia in it's genetics, it naturally spread through marriage to the other families. Geneticists think this group of cases came from a spontaneous mutation in the blood of Queen Victoria's father. Victoria then passed it along to several of her children and they took it to the other royal families.

 

[Cavalier]

@lupaglupa I had really misunderstood that. Thank you very much for that explanation.

John

 

[Banjo Pete]

I've been reading a lot of copyright-free "classics" online during lockdown. Shelley's "Frankenstein", "Le Comte de Monte Cristo" and "Wuthering Heights". All 3 of those books had cousin-based romances as part of the plot.

I found it odd that the first 3 early-mid 19th C novels I read in a row all used this plot device. "Wuthering Heights" took it to the next level. Also, IMHO, Heathcliff was a real brute !