Still a lot of ignorance out there

[bugbear]

This story has been doing the rounds, of (yet another) married couple who discover they're "cousins".

TL;DR DNA match at 62 cM, they're definitely NOT first cousins.

And yet the wife was "sick to her stomach" 

https://www.joe.co.uk/life/wife-was-sick-to-her-stomach-when-she-discovered-husband-of-17-years-is-her-cousin-398301

[LizzieL]

By ignorance do you mean the statement that the wife was "sick to her stomach"?
Or ignorant enough to share their very private and personal story on social media?
Or the ignorant reaction of other people  (quote from article )
"After sharing their story on TikTok, they’ve been on the receiving end of abuse from people who have branded their marriage “sick.”?

or all three? 

[LizzieL]

Or the ignorance of the author of the article who stated that
"In this case, 62 cM meants the pair had the same ancestor eight generations back".

I mean the categorical statement of the number of generation not the spelling mistake !

[Biggles50]

Stupid is as stupid does, in posting intimate detail on a very dubious Social Media platform in the first place.

My own Wife and I shared DNA matches but do not have any level reportable DNA shared between us. 

The MRCA ancestor we share is many centuries ago and as 90%+ of the native British population are likely to be descended from this ancestral pair then to the reasonably well educated Genealogist marrying a distant Cousin is an actual occurrence that regularly happens.

[phil57]

The MRCA ancestor we share is many centuries ago and as 90%+ of the native British population are likely to be descended from this ancestral pair then to the reasonably well educated Genealogist marrying a distant Cousin is an actual occurrence that regularly happens.

And was often more common than not in many rural communities up until people began to travel and relocate further afield for work or other reasons. My uncle, writing about he and my father growing up in a Somerset village in the 1920s, said that for most people at the time, their entire world was defined by the distance they could travel on foot or by bicycle in a day, and that every child at the local school was interrelated to some degree or other. From my research, he wasn't wrong, and the same is apparent in one of my other ancestral lines from rural Lincolnshire.

[Chris Doran]

It's an American thing. According to this site:
"For most Americans, however, marriage between cousins is at best a punchline, at worst a taboo. In many states, it is illegal for first cousins to get married."

So they could have "just" moved to another state, remarried, and adopted their own children.

This all explains a phrase in an American film I saw many many years ago which mystified me: "kissing cousins", implying that there were ones you shouldn't kiss.

[KGarrad]

Plenty of 1st cousin marriages in UK:
Charles Darwin and his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood. Their respective siblings Caroline Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood III (1795–1880), entrepreneur, also married.   
Albert Einstein (1879–1955), physicist, and his first cousin, Elsa Löwenthal née Einstein.
David Lean, British film director, and his first cousin, Isabel Lean (his first wife).
Christopher Robin Milne, son of author A. A. Milne who was the model for the character Christopher Robin of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, and his first cousin Lesley Sélincourt
Rob Roy MacGregor and his cousin Mary Helen MacGregor of Comar, who married in January 1693.
Edgar Allan Poe and his first cousin, Virginia Clemm (1822–1847).
H. G. Wells (1866–1946), author, and his first cousin, Isabel Mary Wells (his first wife).

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
George I and Sophia Dorothea of Celle
George IV and Caroline of Brunswick
William III and Mary II of England

and plenty more here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coupled_cousins

[Talacharn]

My paternal grandparents were first-cousins. The generation before, there were also first-cousins, but not directly on the same line. It was a small rural Welsh village where people did not travel far. There were many first-cousin marriages. These days it is still the same, as one relationship ends, another 'local' is found.

[coombs]

A number of my Northern Essex ancestors married first or 2nd cousins. It must have been an exclave of Norfolk at the time.  Joke, joke.