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Where our family is from the priests wouldn't allow marriage between 6th cousins. My grandfather was 6th cousins three times removed from my grandmother. (so sh
by skylan_q 10y ago
Where our family is from the priests wouldn't allow marriage between 6th cousins. My grandfather was 6th cousins three times removed from my grandmother. (so she was 9 generations away from common ancestors with him) They had to get written permission from the bishop to get married.
- milesskorpen 10y agoSounds like they basically penalized record keeping ...
- civilian 10y agoAh, it was probably the Church who was keeping the records in the first place.
- usrusr 10y agoThe beauty of selective enforcement. Dig deep enough into your ecclesiastical data-monopoly and you can veto just about any marriage at will. It never was the same again once laymen started to read and write.
- skylan_q 10y agoYes, it was the Franciscans who were a huge influence and kept record of these things. Most people would remember relations as far as great-grandparents and relations to families/family friends that they knew. Literacy was pretty high in the region early on as well, but people continued to rely on the church for recordkeeping.
- jacobolus 10y agoThe Church worked very deliberately over centuries to reduce the influence of families / clans, in some places more successfully than others. It all revolves around inheritance rights and accumulated power. (Also in some cases the Church could collect money by charging for exemptions.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consanguinity#Religious_and_traditional_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consanguinity#Religious_and_tr...
- Asooka 10y agoHold up how does this work? If they're three times removed, then the age difference is something like 50-60 years. Is it a case of a ~75-year-old marrying a ~20-year-old?