Prohibited Marriages

Sign up to the Life newsletter for daily tips, advice, how-tos and escapism. We had a mutual break up after a few months and remained close afterwards. In college, my now wife and I decided to take our friendship to the next level. We were married a few years later and now have two kids. There is no awkwardness between any of us and the three of us frequently go out to dinner together.

Specifically, until the s or so, first cousins commonly married in Europe and If a girl and her sister meet two brothers, they pair off.. and each is dating our granddaughter, I thought they are cousins, way down the.

In England the list of forbidden marriages was drawn up by the Church of England in and remained unchanged until the 20 th century. I have reproduced the original list below. Because it is presented in a precise but rather complicated way I have transformed the list into a more easily understood form here. Wherein whosoever are related are forbidden in scripture and our laws to marry together.

No cousins are mentioned, which is surprising since double first cousins first degree and normal are equivalent in their relationships to full and half sibs respectively. Also, half sibs are not mentioned, but I think the inclusion of half sibs is implicit in the general terms ‘brother’ or ‘sister’. In the same vein half uncles, half aunts, half nephews and half nieces are implicitly included with their full counterparts.

This is made clearer in later lists where half sibs are referred to specifically. The full set of in-laws and step relatives are included to match the equivalent blood relatives of the same name except the following: Stepsister Stepbrother Stepaunt Stepuncle Stepniece Stepnephew It seems strange excluding stepbrothers and stepsisters while including stepsons and stepdaughters. The first changes were made in The Marriage Act removed no.