WHEN DID COUSINS STOP MARRYING IN YOUR FAMILY?

NEWSCIENTIST : STUDY ON COUSIN MARRIAGE

EXCERPT:  Joanna Kaplanis at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute  in Cambridge, UK, and her colleagues, collected 86 million publicly-available profiles from Geni.com.  Users on this crowd sourcing website create family trees, which are then merged with others when matches occur.

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Basically, in the 19th century people started living further away from each other but cousin marriage persisted for about another 50 years.

Another article based on this same study by another publication, which I'm not linking to due to the ads, said that the tree goes back 11 generations, the participants (willing?) were 85% North American or European, and BEFORE 1750 the spouse was found within 6 miles.  (So read those census records around town!)  After 1950 the geographically desirable were within 60 miles.  (Makes sense to me.  You are now willing to drive an hour each way to date!)  Before 1850 it was socially acceptable and common.  1800 to 1850 people traveled further but it was still OK.  After that it became less acceptable to marry your cousin.  But you'll have to read the study to know if they mean first cousin or fourth!