History Main / KissingCousins

*** What makes it seem even more suspicious is how after they had defeated Eon, Gwen told Ben not to tell anyone about it. There's nothing to be ashamed of loving your family right?

* Eleanor Roosevelt didn't have to change her name when she married Franklin -- they were fifth cousins. Her Uncle Teddy stole the show at the wedding by commenting to FDR that there's "nothing like keeping the family name in the family. However, makes them sound closer than they were: on average, two random people selected from the population will have about the genetic similarity of fourth cousins.

* Charles Darwin [[CharlesAndEmma married his cousin]]. Think about that for a minute.
** Albert Einstein did the same thing, though neither was of child-bearing age at the time.
** Maybe rather unsurprising, Edgar Allan Poe married his [[ValuesDissonance 13-year-old]] cousin.

* Eleanor Roosevelt didn't have to change her name when she married Franklin -- they were fifth cousins. Her Uncle Teddy stole the show at the wedding by commenting to FDR that there's "nothing like keeping the family name in the family."
** Just to point out, second cousins (who have one pair of great-grandparents in common) are so far removed that they are legal to marry in all states and have virtually no genetic material in common (beyond what any two random individuals would). Fifth cousins share only one pair of their great-great-great-great-grandparents.
** On average, two random people have about the genetic similarity of fourth cousins.

** I see your Charles Darwin and raise you Albert Einstein. To be fair, neither was of child-bearing age at the time.

** It seems like the problem should be more that she was 13...* 13 years old and definitely not marrying*
* Speaking of; despite the long-standing stereotype, it is illegal to marry one's first cousin in many of the Appalachian states, including West Virginia, Arkansas, and Kentucky. New York and California, on the other hand, have no prohibitions.

*** And actually, in West Virgina at least, it's "double cousins" (ie the couple are cousins on both maternal and paternal branches) that are prohibited from marrying, not simple first cousins.

** What about Tasmania? It has this reputation.

** This may be more sociological than genetic in nature. Parallel cousin marriages tend to strengthen and isolate clans, where cross cousin marriages tend to bring clans closer together.

** Not so sure about the logic behind that one, though. The Old Testament doesn't prohibit polygamy, but it does prohibit this practice for a reason. Jacob's marriages didn't go so well partly because of this and partly because he got coned.

* In Finland (OrSoIHeard), there is a saying, "Mitä serkumpi, sen herkumpi," which roughly translates as, "the cousinier, the tastier." Not sure if it's true or not, but at least it would help explain why [[http://www.nextnature.net/2008/08/genetic-map-of-europe/ Finland is so genetically distant from the rest of Europe]].

* The French politician Christine Boutin (leader of the Christian Democrat Party) is pretty famous for her extremely devout, conservative views on social issues, and because she is married to her first cousin and had three children with him as well.

* The French politician Christine Boutin (leader of the Christian Democrats) is pretty famous for her extremely devout, conservative views on social issues, and because she is married to her first cousin and had three children with him as well.

** It is tempting to try [[ToyShip shipping]] their half-siblings Coney and Francis, who actually are biological cousins.

* The thing that gets me here is this: Percy is the son of posidon. Annabeth the daughter of Athena. Athena is the niece of Poseidon. Therefore, he is her ''uncle!'' I'm from Kentucky and thats messed up.

* JaneAusten includes a couple in ''MansfieldPark'' that are cousins, and another heroine in ''{{Persuasion}}'' who is wooed by her cousin (and her older sister wants to marry that same cousin). Cousin marriage was in fact common among the elite at the time (Sir Thomas actually [[GenreSavvy predicts it]] in Chapter 1 of ''Mansfield Park''), and Lady Catherine de Bourgh in ''PrideAndPrejudice'' wants her nephew to marry her daughter.

* JRRTolkien examples: When Túrin (accidentally) [[BrotherSisterIncest married his sister]], it was a huge disaster. Both the Elves and the Númenóreans have laws or customs against marrying your first cousin, but when Ar-Pharazôn broke that one, it seemed to be more a symptom than a cause of how messed up Númenor was. Galadriel married her second cousin[[hottip:* :in fact, in Tolkien's latest notes, Celeborn was her ''first'' cousin, though that didn't make it into ''TheSilmarillion'' as there's no easy way to reconcile it with other prohibitions against cousin marriage that appear]] and Elrond married his first cousin twice removed to no bad effect. There are several more distant cousins who marry scattered through the backstory. The fact that Arwen and Aragorn are first cousins over forty-six times removed is pretty much irrelevant.

[[quoteright:232:[[{{Ben10AlienForce}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/benandgwen2_5677.jpg]]]]

* In The Shinji Ikari Raising Project manga (a much lighter, happier and less Angel-focused alternate universe version of ''NeonGenesisEvangelion''), Shinji and Rei are distant relatives. That doesn't get in the way of attraction, though.

** Elise from ''Canvas2''

** Recent [[{{Jossed}} Jossing]]: [[spoiler:Asuna isn't Negi's aunt. She's ''way'' [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld too old]] to be. All they have is a common ancestor - namely, [[BigBad the Lifemaker]]]].

* In ''{{Narutaru}}'', Shouko Fukuyama has these feelings for her cousin Kyouji. Hell, she has it ''bad'' for him; She's about 13 years old and wants to bear his child. She has an ItsAllJunk hissy fit after being told off by his old crush Jyun. Eventually, Kyouji, who had been comatose for years, dies, and Shouko is all alone... until she sees him after he turned into a... "Virgin Princess" and vows to keep on loving him.

* Other RealLife examples with [[RoyallyScrewedUp royal families]], who tended to marry with cousins simply because ''nobody else was noble enough''. The resulting repetitive inbreeding did have some [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_Spain disastrous results]].

&Itemid->'''George Michael:''' Cousins can bunk together. That's why they call it 'bunking cousins'?

->'''George Michael:''' Cousins can bunk together. That's why they call it 'bunking cousins'?

* {{Superman}}'s future daughter engages in [[http://superdickery.com/index.php?view=article&catid=29%3Aconfounding-comic-covers-index&id=1014%3Ajimmy-jr-does-his-cousin&option=com_content&Itemid=47#content a literal example]] for some cover.

This is also the case in China--in the historical period similar to feudal Europe, the noble are explicitly banned from marrying ''any'' person that can trace their paternal lineage to the same historical tribe. This is then extended to all people after the unification of the Chinese empire; people bearing the same surname cannot marry even they are not related at all.

** In Bach's case, the cousin was his first wife Maria Barbara, daughter of Johann Sebastian's uncle Johann Michael. She died young, and he married Anna Magdalena Wilke the following year.

* Composers Bach and Grieg both married their cousins.

** Historically also common among Jews. Marrying first cousins was believed to strengthen family ties; and if not a cousin, marrying within one's tribe was preferred to marrying outside it. This increased after the ''diaspora'', with the small size and insularity of European Jewish ethnic communities, particularly Ashkenazim.

* [[HajimeteNoAku Jiro and Kyoko]] are first cousins on their mothers side.

** Arthur Weasley, on one occasion, explicitly states that almost all, if not actually all, pureblooded wizard families (in Britain seems more likely, but I wouldn't rule out "the world" myself) are in some way related. There's simply so few left that those who haven't started marrying their sisters are going to have to, if they really think purebloodosity is that important.

* ''ArrestedDevelopment'' had a recurring storyline about a young man's love for his cousin (who later turns out [[NotBloodSiblings not to be his biological cousin]]). Furthermore, when these feelings become mutual, the cousin tries to hide from them by dating a boy from her school, who turns out to also be her biological cousin. This was mirrored in two storylines in the final season. The first saw Michael Bluth (played by Jason Bateman) thinking that a prostitute was his long-lost sister and hiring her to work at the company; she thought this was a ''PrettyWoman'' situation and started coming on to him. (The prostitute was played by Justine Bateman, who is Jason Bateman's real-life sister.) Then, in the final episode [[spoiler: it was revealed that Lindsay was not actually Michael's biological sister. Upon finding out, she decided to act on a crush she had had for years.]] Additionally, Michael ended up going out with a woman who [[spoiler: suffered from mental retardation on account of her parents being cousins.]] It was a lot funnier and less creepy than this sounds.