h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"In the United States about half the states, mainly in the South and East, allow first cousins to marry."

In the UK too you can marry a cousin - the daughter of an old friend of my grandmother married her cousin, although the vicar said he would only marry them if they couldn't have children. She went ahead with the op. People who knew her blamed the parents for never letting her mix with anyone, so of course, she only had family to fall in love with.

Thanks for that. I do state that Elizabeth I introduced cousin marriage but I wanted it to be clear for US readers that it is not always straightforward for them.

Oh, Mina, I should have said, maybe they should have found another vicar!

I think it was her local. Maybe she didn't want kiddies anyway, so was happy. Or maybe it's just gossip!

Gossip? I can't imagine you being involved in such stuff.

It's actually not that dangerous for cousins to have children. As long as it's not a sustained practice, the chances of them passing along the same gene is not particularly high. So the priest was wrong to forbid them to have kids (unless there is a high prevalence of genetic disease in the family anyway)

Thinking back to my university days I went to lecture on molecular evolution where the lecturer did the maths and proved this to us, but the only thing I can remember clearly was him telling us that Samaritans are the most inbred people in the world, and in about 3rd place were the rural French.

That amused me and any French person I met for the next couple of months.