Contents | Next>> |
The following are all examples of legitimate situations. I have excluded any illegal marriages, incest or other close inbreeding to protect the individuals and families concerned. Most, of those included, have previously been published in the press or elsewhere. The published reports all refer to the conditions within the families at the time of publication, and will subsequently have changed in terms of ages, family size and current survivors. Three of the examples of double cousins, whose names have been withheld, come from my own relatives and work colleagues.
Enhanced Half Sib Relationship
1. Simon McGrath from Nottinghamshire (now 44) married Christine Wray in 1982. They had two children, Natalie (now 19) and John (now 14). Christine died in 1996 (aged 34). Christine's sister, Sally (now 28), who had been staying with Simon and Christine because her parents had died, helped to look after the two children. About a year after her sister's death, Sally began living with Simon and they had two further children, Sean (now 6) and Scott (now 4). The couple is shortly to be married. Everyone has remarked on the similarity between the two sets of children, which is not surprising since they are three-quarter sibs. (R = 0.375). Ref:- Daily Mail, July 4th, 2003.
2. Three brothers of the Wyatt family from Tamworth, each had children by the same person, Julie. Chris (brother no. 1) married Julie in 1981 and had two daughters: Emma - now 21 and Claire - now 18. The marriage lasted until 1984, when Julie started living with Danny (brother no. 2) resulting in a son, Daniel - now 16. This relationship also lasted about 3 years. Finally, Julie married Dave (brother no. 3) and had 3 more children: Julian (13), Katie (12) and Brendan (9). Thus, the relationship between the 3 groups of Julie's children is that of 'three-quarter sibs'. Additionally, Dave was previously married to Marie, who sadly died after having a son, Gavin - now 25. Also, after divorcing Julie, Chris married Wendy and had two more children. Therefore, the 9 children of the 3 Wyatt brothers include the following sets of relatives: full sibs (R = 1/2), three-quarter sibs (R = 3/8), half sibs (R = 1/4) and single first cousins (R = 1/8). Ref:- Daily Mail October 2nd, 2003.
Double First Cousins (First Degree) (R = 0.5)
1. Peter and John Collister from Clowne, Chesterfield were identical twins, who married Pat and Pauline Welsh, also identical twins, in a double wedding. They have 5 children who all look like brothers and sisters, regardless of family origin. Ref:- Daily Mail, November 1st, 2000.
2. Two sets of identical twins, Darren and Sean Duffy and Helen and Maxine Chambers were born on the same day at Oldham Hospital in 1977. In 2000, Darren married Helen and Sean married Maxine. Later both women had babies, Molly and Jamie, at the same hospital two weeks apart. Ref:- Daily Mail, January 20th, 2001.
Double First Cousins (R = 0.25)
1. Winston Churchill's American grandfather, Leonard Jerome (1818 - 1891), and his great uncle, Lawrence Jerome (1820 - 1888), who were brothers, married two sisters Clara and Catherine Hall respectively. Clara was the American grandmother of Winston. Thus, Jenny Jerome (1854 - 1921), Winston's mother, was the double first cousin of William Travers Jerome (1859 - 1934), famous New York District Attorney, who was Lawrence Jerome's son. Ref:- Gilbert (2005).
2. Two of my great uncle's sons, who were full brothers, married two sisters from another unrelated local family. Each couple had children, which meant that the relationship between the two family groups was that of double first cousins. Two of my work colleagues shared a similar family history and were also the parents of double first cousins.
Irregular Double Cousins
The two brothers from my great uncle's family, mentioned in the last paragraph, had a third brother who married a first cousin of his two brother's wives. Therefore, in addition to double first cousins, there were also irregular double cousins in the same family. The two relationships in this irregular double were first and second cousins. My great uncle had 10 children and 29 grandchildren. The remaining 7 of his children married unrelated spouses and had further offspring. Therefore, his grand-children (who are my 2nd cousins) include sets of:- full sibs (R = 1/2), double first cousins (R = 1/4), irregular double cousins - first and second (R = 3/16) and single first cousins (R = 1/8).
Most Siblings to Marry the Siblings of Another family
All five daughters of Narandra Nath and Taramoni Roy married five brothers - the sons of Trarpoda Karmaker and Khani Roy (Bangladesh) between 1977 and 1996. If any children resulted from these 5 marriages (information not available) then each set would have a double first cousin relationship (R = 0.25) with every other set. Ref:- Guiness World Records (2007 edition).
Famous People Whose Parents Were First Cousins
John Ruskin and Toulouse Lautrec.
Famous People Who Married their First Cousin
Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein.
Longest Interval Between Children
Elizabeth Ann Buttle (UK). Her only daughter, Belinda, was born in 1956 (when she was 19), and her only son was born in 1997 (when she was 60). This is an age gap of 41 years. Ref;- Guiness Book of Records (2002 edition).
Long Generation Intervals Between Living Relatives
1. Florence Mabel Barnett is 101. Her son, Michael, is 55 and her twin grandsons, Samuel Joe Harrison Barnett, and Markham Henry Scott Barnett, are 8. This is an average generation interval of approx. 46.5 years. Ref:- Daily Mail, February 18th, 2002.
2. When Lois Grieve was born in 1935, her father was 50 and her grandfather was 99. Average generation interval = 49.5 years. Ref:- Daily Mail, February 21st, 2002.
Long Generation Intervals
This example has already been mentioned on here. Baroness Elliot of Harwood was born in 1903, her father was born in 1823 and her grandfather in 1786. This gives a mean generation interval of 58.5 years. She died in 1992 aged 89. Ref:- Guiness Book of Records (1991 edition).
Most Generations Still Alive
In a direct line, if most of the relevant individuals are first born and are produced when their parents are young, it can have a dramatic effect on the number of generations alive at the same time.
Harriet Holmes (Canada), born 17th January, 1899, who was aged 88 years, 5 days when she became a great-great-great-grandmother (4GM) to Brian Bursey on 8th March,1987 (average generation interval over the 6 generations still alive - 17.6 years). Ref:- Guiness World Records (2007 edition).
(average generation interval - 19.6 years.) All the children below were first born except Olive Murphy, who was the second child:
Age in Years | Age When Child Born | |
Mary Symes | 98 | 21 |
Eileen Escudier | 77 | 20 |
Olive Murphy | 57 | 19 |
Debbie Thompson | 38 | 19 |
Danielle Cain | 19 | 19 |
Grace Still | 0 |
This group probably qualifies for the greatest number of direct female relatives still alive. Ref:- Weekend Daily Mail, July 11th, 1998.
Unusual Sets of Twins and Multiple Births
The following five sets of mixed race parents each had fraternal twins which included one black and one white child. The dates refer to issues of the Daily Mail newspaper where they were reported.