Double relationships, cousin marriages etc.

[Redroger]

They would of course have had a larger pool Lizzie, but in that era I believe family interests and "suitability" were often major factors in who a person married. The village where my mother's family lived had a reputation for arranged marriages, I have found one marriage where a partner of her uncle who was 9 years old when he went to Australia age 14 left to join him there at the height of WW1, some 12 years later. No one wants to admit that any of these marriages might have been arranged though. Why the taboo?

[LizzieW]

Came across a real example of "Double Cousins" where 2 siblings marry 2 siblings (MF to FM or MM to FF) and have children. The children of the marriages share both sets of grandparents and are the genetic equivalent of half siblings.

That's what I meant by marrying each others brothers and sisters.  I hadn't thought of the children as being the genetic equivalent of half siblings as well as cousins.

Roger - I'm not sure they would have been too worried about marrying "suitable" people.  One of the families had come over from Ireland and the men were shoemakers.  Unlike her siblings, my g.grandmother didn't marry into the Irish family, she married a baker.  Their father had been a hairdresser who died from excessive drinking

Lizzie

ps.  A similar thing happened on my father's side of the family, my paternal g.grandparents married each other's brother and sister.  Unfortunately, their offspring never knew each other, as the other family (obviously not my g.grandparents) all died within about 5 years of each other.  Mind you, as my grandfather "forgot" to tell the family that he had siblings, I'm sure he wouldn't have mentioned any cousins.

[Redroger]

I know of at least one case from the 1960s where identical twin boys married identical twin girls. I would have thought that this would mean all children born to the marriages would be genetically identical first cousins. Had they (any children) subsequently married each other I would have thought this would potentially cause problems like those believed to have beensuffered by the Egyptian pharoahs.

[Icicle]

In Ireland "suitable" was considered important, especially in rural farming communities where land was involved.

Arranged marriages were not uncommon. In the 1920s my great uncle reluctantly married the daughter from the farm next door to join up the 2 farms. My grandmother was supposed to have married someone else but set her sights on my grandfather and the match was considered not entirely suitable as she had more land than he had 

There are some great stories where the brides father and brothers would walk the land of the prospective bridegroom and he would "borrow" some of his neighbours cattle/horses etc to make it look better. My favourite is where the man arrives at the house to ask a girls father permission to marry, discovers she has an older, unmarried sister and is persuaded to marry her instead!

[Redroger]

Whereabouts in Ireland Icicle, as I remember my late grandmother mentioning an Irish connection which I have never been able to find.

[Icicle]

Hi Roger

We are in Cork but the family origins are in Sligo/Leitrim.

I've sent you a pm with more info

[Redroger]

Received and replied to pm thanks,
Roger