Albert Einstein did it. So did Charles Darwin. All sorts of British royalty, including Queen Elizabeth.
They married a cousin.
Einstein and Darwin married first cousins. Prince Phillip was Queen Elizabeth’s second cousin once removed, distant, but cousins nonetheless. Rudy Giuliani married a first cousin, so did singer Jerry Lee Lewis, who at 22, married a 13-year-old cousin.
The Bible’s Old Testament talks about cousin marriage. In one passage God instructs cousins to marry (Numbers 36:1-11).
There are so many examples of historic figures marrying a cousin, it begs the question: Is it even legal?
Yes if you live in South Carolina and these other states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia. The South Carolina Code of Laws Section 20-1-10 specifically prohibits many types of family members from marrying, but not cousins.
You can marry your second cousin, however, in all states in the nation.
The practice is allowed and even encouraged in countries around the world.
Until the mid-1800s cousin marriage in the U.S. was favored by the upper class as a way to hold onto wealth. The rise in the ease of travel, though, opened the world and more suitors.
Voice of America reported that the Rev. Charles Brooks of Massachusetts was among the first to decry the practice when in 1855 he spoke to the American Association for the Advancement of Science saying first-cousin marriage led to birth defects.
“Alexander Graham Bell, best known for inventing the telephone, also waded into the debate. He suggested introducing legislation to ban consanguineous marriages in families with deaf-mute members so that the condition would not be inherited by children of such marriages,” Voice of America said.
In the United States, the trend toward making it illegal began with Kansas in 1858, followed by Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, New Hampshire, Ohio and Wyoming in the 1860s.
In states such as Arizona and Illinois first cousins can wed if they are beyond child-bearing age or infertile. In North Carolina, first cousins can marry unless they are double first cousins, think offspring of brothers marrying sisters.
Healthsite.com says recent studies have shown there is double the risk — 7% — of birth defects and genetic disorders, cystic fibrosis, Down syndrome and hearing and visual disabilities.
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