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Question:I know 2nd cousins are legal but it can get weird during the holidays right?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I know 2nd cousins are legal but it can get weird during the holidays right?

If you are wondering if your mom can go on that tryst with GWB you are definitely not cleared for take off!! entirely too close

Gee Buba.....you need to date your family???? Aren't there any single girls in the trailer park where you live??????

well if your really wondering NO branches is the safest

In Illinois you can marry your first cousin if you are both over 50. I would think 4 branches is good.

As far as dating (and assuming you are a minor) it really is just what EACH of the families think. They may truely feel it is just unacceptable, not done, they may feel it is OK. But except for one specific potential action associated with dating, relationship, besides societal/family norms, is irrelevant.

But that one specific act, and even marriage in general (which of course leads to that specific act), I BELIEVE there are still a few states that will not issue marriage licenses to 1st cousins, but I haven't heard of (doesn't mean they don't exist) one that puts any restrictions on 2nd cousins.

But procreation...there is a lot of "urban legend" out there re. "kissin' cousins". Many believe that if two cousins have a child, it is likely that the child will have a third leg coming out of his forehead. Not so. What it really comes down to is recessive gene inheritence. A single set of cousins procreating isn't really that big of a deal. But if you have a related family procreating with each other over generations, then there certainly can be genetic problems.

But since the "problem" genes are normally recessive (if they were dominant it wouldn't matter who you were marrying), and that gene exists in a family line, then an offspring of two people from that common line would have a better chance of inheriting the recessive gene from both parents.

So certainly if there is some genetic based problem in a family line, some syndrome, a disfigurement such as cleft lip, etc., it should be strongly considered before two people of any relation from that line procreate as any child would have a much better chance of inheriting this problem than if done with someone not from that family.

But reality is, even in 1st cousin procreation, given it is just a one time occurrence and not a multi-generational occurrence, it is probably 99.999% (I made that number up) that there would be no problem with the child.

But dating?? That is really just a function of societal/family norms and feelings. By BOTH families.

I would say any beacause its up to you who u like or not.
besides everyone is related to everyone in a diffrent way.
Give anything a shot, don't just think in familly, think in whats better for you and your likings.

If some one fell from my family tree I wouldn't date or marry them...Bless the poor children's hearts that came from that....I can't handle the way most of them act let alone marry them....So I would say none of the branches would be a good choice

OK depends on your culture, times and country. Dozens of my pre-1900 ancestors married their first cousins. Marrying a 1C is legal in 26 states and most non-US countries. The Catholic Church, which has a longer history and more people than the USA, has no ban against marrying a 1st C. No state, no country and no religion I know of cares about 2nd, 3rd or further.

In some of the smaller sects, like the Amish, if they want to marry someone of their denomination, it is a cousin or nothing. The Pennsylvania Dutch were like that.

If you have hemophilia in your family, don't date or get sterilized before your marry.

Worst case I can think of is some lout dates his 1C in a state it is legal, spends time on the drive to and from trying to get her bra off, chews with his mouth open at dinner and picks a movie HE likes and she doesn't. If you do that with a classmate, she spray paints "John Smith is an insufferable twit" in the Boy's gym and her older brother pounds you to a pulp, but after the stitches come out you are OK to get on with your life. Do it with a 1C, thought, and there are going to be some LONG silences at, as you said, the holidays.

Go with what Ted so eloquently said. In the end, we are ALL cousins. I am all up into my and my husband's family trees doing our genealogy. A few months back I come to discover we are distant cousins, having some of the same great grandparents somewhere down the line. In one case, we share a great-grandmother, but I descend from one husband of hers, and my husband descends from another husband of hers.