Consanguineous Relationships are the posh name for inbreeding and are still widely prevalent in Australia among Aborigine, Immigrant and demographically dispersed populations.

Intermarriage simply refers to marriage between people from different ethnic/cultural backgrounds. This is a rising phenomena in Australia especially between second and third generation family members.

Urban areas have more intermarriages while the country has more consanguineous relationships occuring. After visiting an area widely rumoured to be rife with inbreeding a couple of weeks ago, I suddenly became more interested in these aspects of population theory and would be interested to hear what others have to think and any experiences people might think relevent.

Reading about it reminds me of the Asian population in England staying very much to themselves and extended families in deepest, dark Wales

.... and your problem with the Welsh is?........

Yeh! MY dad is Welsh and never inter-bred in his life OI OI OI

I'm still waiting for the punchline!

It's not illegal to marry your cousin you know!!! Did find that out this week. Not that it matter to me... can't marry them anyway!!

So what happens if someone is married (therefore related i guess) and separate but then remarry their former partner? Are they both?

You cannot marry your first cousin. I have heard of some brothers and sisters who while not being able to marry, live in a defacto relationship. The scientific evidence is that children born to such a union are unlikely to suffer genetic problems anymore than anyone else.

It's just the religious and traditional views of things that prevent marriage. Once gays get the right to marry in this country, siblings will be the next argument. Personally I think if both parties are of age of consent, then let them be with who they want. Love is hard enough to find without politicians and religious leaders telling us how we must live.

Marriage Act 1961 says only void marriages are those between ancestors and descendent (someone marrying a child/grandchild or parent/grandparent etc.) or between brothers and sisters (including anyone adopted)

no mention of marriages between cousins, 1st second or otherwise!

will investigate further...

I don't know about Australia, but I've always been told that cousins CAN marry.

Its a question I have never asked

Totally off subject i am going to my first civil ceromony in sept

I don't even know why I was told that

I think it probably goes on in alot of places you wouldn't suspect, when i was first nursing i worked in a rural hosp, and it seemed to be all the staff and patients were related to each other. I was totally an outsider fae Glesgaw, and treated as such

For show & tell

"tell the kids to go in and say they're special because they're the only kids in their class who's parents weren't related before they were married."

The question my dad used to ask the locals for a wind up was: "If you divorce your wife is she still your sister?"

You can marry your first cousin, but that's about as close as you can get.

There was an interesting article in the SMH a couple of weeks ago about the number of disabled children born to a specific branch or sect of Lebanese migrants. They were basically all related and had been marrying their cousins for generations.

A few miles out of Forbes/Parkes in NSW there is a small -er- shanty town (can't call it a village) suposedly populated by one very large family reputed to be overly fond of each other. It was shown to us as a kind of tourist attraction but not even the locals would drive around there at night. :scared: