Family trees

Mojisola

I don't believe it's ever been illegal for first cousins to marry in the UK.

I have several cases in the trees I've researched - more common in rural areas where there probably weren't a lot of options.

It's unlikely that first cousins wouldn't know that they were closely related but there was no taboo against it.

SailorSam

Tipsntreats wrote: »

I really am rather like my Avatar, except I have blonde hair.
Now, where is All the nice girls like a sailor Sam? Are you a sailor Samantha? Mmm I thought not.

PS Mary Shelley the author of Frankenstein is buried in my town, if any of you are related to either of them.
Tips x

St Peter's Church .......... I googled it.
I've got a dinghy, a Laser to go sailing, and Sam just fitted.

Tipsntreats

Glad you understood my message Sam.

[Deleted User]

We have traced our family tree on my fathers side back to 1340 in Sweden and were lucky enough to be able to find from those records we found the place where most of the family lived and where some still live today. Even more satisfying we took a week at Easter this year and flew to Sweden and made the journey to the island where they lived and hiked out to the valley where the farm is still situated, walked across the mountain too and on to the village where my great Grandmother was born and married my great Grandfather then on to the church and burial ground where the family plot is situated rounding the circle of being, truly wonderful feeling and so worth the work and the journey back to our homelands.

milasavesmoney

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

We have traced our family tree on my fathers side back to 1340 in Sweden and were lucky enough to be able to find from those records we found the place where most of the family lived and where some still live today. Even more satisfying we took a week at Easter this year and flew to Sweden and made the journey to the island where they lived and hiked out to the valley where the farm is still situated, walked across the mountain too and on to the village where my great Grandmother was born and married my great Grandfather then on to the church and burial ground where the family plot is situated rounding the circle of being, truly wonderful feeling and so worth the work and the journey back to our homelands.

Lovely story.

Tipsntreats

Oh MrsLurcherwalker welcome. I am SO envious of you! That is a wonderful thing to find them! I know many people are now participating in DNA, in the hope of finding deeper roots. You have found yours!
I watched some TV program's years ago, that gave clues. If someone has an intolerance to cows milk, they would have originated from an area that did not have cows, just goats. Then there was something to do with eye colour. If you had blue eyes, then you would have come from the Mediterranean. I have green eyes, and if you read all through this thread, you will see that witches are lurking!
What about your Maternal side? Always a challenge.
Tips x

[Deleted User]

Far less success on my maternal line only back to 1808 due to having a Greek surname which has been misspelt so often and in so many variations that the waters are very muddied. A work in progress but I think we'll never have all of it as my Grandmothers family were itinerant tinkers and I suspect that registration of births and marriages was not a priority.

safestored4

Apologies if I have missed something, but having read through all the posts nobody seems to have picked up on the brilliant free Ordnance Survey website.

Just type in Old OS Maps, go into the site and you can access 6" to the mile maps for the whole country from the 1840s onwards, dates vary across the country. It can be a bit complicated to navigate initially but they really bring early census returns to life. They show the most remarkable detail. For example, we take water for granted now but early maps show the location of all the wells in the town at a time before we had piped water.

lillibet_dripping

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

We have traced our family tree on my fathers side back to 1340 in Sweden and were lucky enough to be able to find from those records we found the place where most of the family lived and where some still live today. Even more satisfying we took a week at Easter this year and flew to Sweden and made the journey to the island where they lived and hiked out to the valley where the farm is still situated, walked across the mountain too and on to the village where my great Grandmother was born and married my great Grandfather then on to the church and burial ground where the family plot is situated rounding the circle of being, truly wonderful feeling and so worth the work and the journey back to our homelands.

(Just to say, Mrs L, you have been soooooo missed!)

lobbyludd

Mojisola wrote: »

I don't believe it's ever been illegal for first cousins to marry in the UK.

I have several cases in the trees I've researched - more common in rural areas where there probably weren't a lot of options.

It's unlikely that first cousins wouldn't know that they were closely related but there was no taboo against it.

from roman times through to medieval times it was banned in England, and this extended beyond just first cousins. various kings etc are recorded as having to get papal dispensation to marry not-that-close relatives. Whether that filtered down to all social levels i'm not sure, nor to what extent but literature from beyond the medieval is fairly littered with references to the poor outcomes of these unions, so I think even if not explicitly banned by religious or civil law, there has been quite a continuous social taboo against first cousins marrying in much of the UK. As you say the strength of that can vary from place to place and family to family.

we have the odd instance of cousins marrying in the history my dad researched, and also one woman who appears to have had a child with her uncle and her cousin, with a stint in an institution in between (it is my father who does this so my knowledge is second hand) - but my point is that just because something happens, doesn't mean it isn't taboo.