Doug, the problem with your observation is that one must bear in mind that living on an island, especially a small island, is much different than being able to traverse the countryside of a landlocked country for days, weeks, months, or years in search of the perfect spouse, who's unrelated, unattached, and unknown by the rest of the community... As for property, title, or wealth being the incentive, we're talking about peasant farmers, for the most part who didn't even have the option of living on the land that they worked - their plight was more akin to the sharecroppers of the southern US than even most of Europe... The only society that existed was among the nobility, not farmers...
On Saturday, April 5, 2014 11:51:13 PM UTC-4, Doug da Rocha Holmes wrote: > > For what it's worth, as a comparison to what we see in the Azores, and > especially in the smaller villages, I don't have any instances I've ever > seen on my mother's Hungarian/Slovak side of cousins getting married. The > villages were not huge, but still bigger than most Azorean villages. And so > I guess they had a much easier time to find spouses who were unrelated. > These were not big landowners, so property didn't seem to be much of a > factor. > > On the other hand, another in-law from Hungary has noble lineage and her > tree has many examples of cousins being married. It was clearly a huge > factor of property. > > So it's something related to the social class and family wealth. Some of > the more successful of my Pico ancestors have some descendants who married > cousins related in up to three different ways. I'm sure most researchers > have run across a couple related in something like the 2nd degree, and in > the 3rd and 4th degree, but the one I have in mind was also related in > another degree like maybe 3rd degree. And I have seen many examples of > wealthy families on Terceira like this, as well. > > Doug da Rocha Holmes > Sacramento, California > Pico & Terceira Genealogist > 916-550-1618 > www.dholmes.com > > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [AZORES-Genealogy] Re: first degree of consanguinity > From: Herb <[email protected] <javascript:>> > Date: Sat, April 05, 2014 7:40 pm > To: [email protected] <javascript:> > > I have never seen a first degree but I have seen lots of 4th, 3rd and > second. Need to keep a few things in mind though. During the 18th and 19th > centuries in Europe about 40% of marriages were among cousins. During > someone's lifetime they might have travelled 20-30 miles from their home so > they didn't know a lot of people to marry. Marrying cousins was a way to > keep lands and other property in the family name and also seen as a way to > keep blood lines pure. There is even an old Portuguese folk song about > marrying cousins. I will ask my 85 year old mother and post it here. Herb > > > -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores.
