Looking at Consanguineous Ancestors at Reddit

Someone using the name Doncuneo asked at reddit.com for responses from people who have consanguineous ancestry...

[Serious] Redditors who are the products of incest (parents, Grand, Great Grand etc.) have any genetic disorders or recessive traits affected you?serious replies only

When I last checked,  there were many hundreds of responses. Here are just a few below. It is a reinforcement of what this blog has said before; one usually doesn't have to go far back in their family history to find ancestors who were close relatives.

Please note that the way the question was asked solicited responses that include accounts of two very different things: assault and sex (which is consensual). It is also important to keep in mind that genetics are just one of many factors that can contribute to health problems.

Heroinunicorn

My grandparents were cousins in northern Canada. We learned this when I was going to get my metis status(native mixed with settler).

NVAdvocate

My daughter was diagnosed at age 18 with mosaic turners syndrome. She has no physical features like webbed hands or feet, but after the doctor told us that, I recalled that my grandfather's sister had webbed feet and hands. She never had children either. So did a little genealogy search, did not have to go back far on that side of my family to find a great - many times back - grandfather who widowed, then wait, what..? wasn't she his sister? You can't marry your sister...Yep.

incestthrowaway512

I'm using a throwaway because a couple of friends know my username. My family history on my mother's side has always been something of a blip in our otherwise 'normal' family. My grandmother was a product of incest, her mother and father also being siblings. It came out during my great-grandmother's pregnancy that this baby was the result of incest (I don't exactly know how, I'll clarify with my mother when it's not nearly 4 in the morning!). Obviously, my family was not okay with that in the slightest and so my grandmother was raised in a very toxic environment and the effect this had on her was enormous.

ThePostItNote 

Yup. 1800s - g.g.grandparents were siblings. No genetic disorders. This was Puerto Rico though, not W Virginia.

sometimesIcanbe

This is how my husband wound up with a sister who was also his cousin when his Mom stepped out on my father in law with a pair of brothers. My husband's ex is also his cousin by marriage, being his aunt's husband's brother's daughter. Family functions in a small town are weird tense and you definitely need a flow chart.

beatyour1337

My great great grandmother married her uncle and had 1 daughter.

perpetualmotion69

My parents were cousins. My brothers and I are completely normal, no genetic diseases, no complications, no mental illnesses. There's a lot of cousin/cousin marriage in my family including first cousins and second etc and no one that I know of has any stand out abnormalities. One cousin couple had a miscarriage but that's about it.

Metoocuz

My parents are also first cousins. Explaining family relations is complicated, but I don't have any health or mental issues, nor do my kids.

MorahMorahMorah

My grandparents are first cousins. And their grandparents and so on and so on. It was a commonly accepted practice in Puerto Rico until very recently.

ThePostItNote

On the Puerto Rican side of my family, my G.G. Grandparents were siblings. It's the only known incest and no genetic disorders expressed in my generation. My g.g. grandfather did have an uncle who had a "blue child" (like as in the kid was blue. Not sure how much to believe it but they insist it's true. Sadly, no color photos in the 1800s) and his brother had extra fingers. But aside from them, no weird genetics.

aaaassdfjdf

My parents are first cousins. Neither my brother nor I seem to have any physical or mental disabilities, and I don't expect any of my children to be any different.

Gay_Coffeemate

My background culture is from the hinterlands of Sindh Province, in Pakistan. Here, from uncounted generations to this day, the "best' marriage is considered between first cousins.

There are entire villages of people with the same last names. The first thing relatives do when their child is at an marriagable age, is to winnow through his or her first cousins. Failing that, they comb through the ranks for second cousins and so on. Anybody who marries from out his "caste" as we call the "last name" is considered a weirdo by everyone he meets.

I've been living in Canada for over a decade, and as far as I can see, the proportion of inheritable diseased appears to be the same. So I believe that apart from the "ick" factor, there might not be as much genetic effects as people here seem to imply.

The only exception to this rule was in a small village close to my own. They also followed the usual Sindhi trend of looking for marriages within their immediate family, and then gradually widening their search. In this village, there IS a strange effect that may or may not be due to faulty genetics. Basically what happens, every few years, an 'angel' boy is born to some couple. The child appears healthy. Invariably a male baby, he's born with very fair, almost albino skin and attractive cherubic features. The problem is that these boys invariably die with a month or two despite any treatment, any medicine the desperate parents can afford. And some of them are very rich, round-the-clock care at expensive hospitals, special diets, insulated rooms, nothing works. The maximun life span was about 4 months, as I recall. That's why they are called angel children.

vjmaxg

Both sides of family had incest. On my dad sides they founded a village going back to the time when Canada was being colonized and for many generation the diversity in the village wasn't great at all so getting married to your first or second cousin was normal. On my moms side its pretty much the same but it stated only about 5 generation back. Health problems, mainly Alzheimer's on both sides and mental health issues on moms side. Every one of my moms side had died for the past few generation of Alzheimer's. Its just great knowing of what you'll die of...

Spencer1231

My great grandparents are first cousins, no defects with my grandmother, my mother, or myself. Lucky us?

Brasston

Child of incest here. My dad was my mom's uncle. They met at a family reunion for extra points lol.

Haven't really noticed much on my end. No major issues like physical deformities or anything. Mental issues (bipolarism, depression, etc) tend to run in my family, so I deal with some of that. Depression mostly, and occasional hallucinations. Not sure if that's been made worse by the fact that my parents were related or not.

highvelocitypeanut

I have know two cases. Father daughter and brother sister. The brother sister product were healthy but were unattractive to a extreme degree. The father daughter child had spinabifida, bone marrow issues and mental issues.

Xerbe

My grandfathers parents were cousins, and everything is fine with him. (He's a bit weird but that's probably the age). My mom and her siblings are fine and al of their children are fine. Nothing wrong actually

Baelor_Breakspear

My mum's and dad's side of the family have pretty much always married cousins (1st mostly and they are not related) Nothing really has affected them, perhaps only short height (which I got too).

Siarc

My Middle School music teacher is married to his Sister. He changed his name so they could marry. It was a much brought up point by all the evil little adolescent children I was surrounded by even though we lived in rural Alabama They have one child and his name is Kevin.

I wonder how Siarc knows this is true rather than  just the typical middle school false gossip? 

th4tgurl

My great grandparents were first cousins AND step siblings. I was shocked when I found out but it seems it was pretty common in small European villages at the time. I don't inherited any genetic disorders from that side of the family, but my father is color blind so I might pass that to my hypothetical children.

elMoro

My paternal grandfather is the older brother of my maternal grandmother, so my parents are first cousins. I'm healthy though..

1001001indistress100

My grandparents were first cousins, but I went on to be an attorney, and my sister is an ER doctor.
I have a degree in molecular genetics, and understand why she and I don't have problems by it, but there are too many "Oh my God you're inbred" people out there that I never mention it.

saintlaurentbalmain

My uncle and aunt are first cousins. They have three kids and they all turned out fine. I've heard that it's only through multiple generations of inbreeding that significant health issues occur.

TyrannicalStubs

Oh, I'm a bit late to the party.

Due to unfortunate circumstances, my great-grandfather is also my grandfather, my mother her mother's half-sister, my grandmother my aunt, and so on...To answer your question, my mother doesn't have anything weird like webbed-toes (and neither do I FTR) and she's not retarded, although I do think it's given us a particular predisposition to disorders of the depressive variety. My mother tends to be a bit loopy.

edit: Yes, to clarify: my great-grandfather abused his daughter (my grandmother), resulting in my mother. Technically this also makes my mother my aunt-cousin or something....

Demonite

My grandparents are first cousins, I'm perfectly fine as far as I am aware.

throwawayimcest

Might be too late but my parents are first cousins. Apart from childhood asthma, I never had any significant health problems. I was in my high school soccer team. I do have hayfever though. My younger brother has been more unlucky with his health although doctors say it stems from his premature birth (3 weeks). He had pneumonia as a child and is still asthmatic. If anyone has any questions regarding my health or my family background, I'm more than happy to answer them.

Nahwi 

My paternal grandparents were first cousins and my wife is my 2nd cousin (maternal great grandma). It's alright in our culture. My dad and his siblings turned out alright.
Edit. My mum is also my 9th cousin. :)

ireditloud 

My parents were from a small village in the Punjab province of Pakistan. My parents are first or second cousins. Anyways, my parents had 6 kids, me being the youngest. We range from 20-31 Luckily, we all are pretty healthy. Only mutation I can tell you is that I have a mild case of aphosthia and a bad case of hair genes.

glazier-heat 

My grandparents were first cousins, their parents where first cousins, probably even more type of these relationships before them, also I have an aunt-uncle who are also first cousins, as far as we know, nothing.

wayluck 

Because of WWII there was a case of unintentional incest in the village where my mom lived growing up, they had a couple and their 2 children were blind, deaf and retarded. It turned out the parents were brother and sister, both their parents died during the war and they were separated through placement in different orphanages. They grew up met each other and got married and the result of the incest became apparent right away. 

Genetic Sexual Attraction?

Wallflower191

My parents are first cousins, my mum grew up in England and dad in India, so they never really knew each other before they met and got married. MY siblings and I do not have any genetic disorders or recessive traits, and no health problems at all. 

Similarly, 5 out of my mum's 7 siblings also married first cousins, again, they grew up totally apart and didn't meet until they were adults and then got married. None of their kids have any genetic disorders either, no health problems or anything at all. 

3 of my aunt's kids, all boys, had some health problems when they were born and their first few years but they're all pretty healthy now. Their parents are first cousins but the other 2 siblings, both girls have always been perfectly healthy.

throwmeaway0816

My parents are first cousins. My dad's parents were first cousins. My mom's parents weren't related, but after having 7-8 kids with my grandmother, my mom's dad left her and married his first cousin, who he ended up having another 6-7 kids with.

As far as I can tell, there aren't any abnormalities in my family.

This all happened in Asia. When the family began moving to the States, they came to discover that most Americans find (or some pretend to find) cousin inbreeding nasty, so nobody spoke about the relationships to anyone.

Well, except one of piece of shit cousins and his bitch mom, who was my dad's youngest sister.

My cousin would publicly mock my brother and I about our parents being cousins because he thought himself to be a special snowflake since his mom and dad weren't related.

His mom also would publicly ask my brother and I stupid questions, like "Why don't you guys call your dad 'Uncle Dad' and your mom 'Aunt Mom'?"

In 2012, my cousin ended up marrying his own first cousin! lol I haven't spoken to him or his family since 2010, but I always want to just hit them up and be like, "Hey, auntie, why don't you call your son's wife 'Daughter-in-Law Niece'?"

If I ever see them in public, I'm going to make it an embarrassing encounter just like they'd do to my brother and I when we were kids. Let's see how they handle strangers close by looking at them and judging them.

AbdelrhmanRamzy

My grandparents are cousins and had 2 boys and 1 girl sofar they are great, and the 2nd generation is me and my sisters and cousins who are also great, so yeah its rare to have gentic disorders unless there is a disease in the family genes, a dominant one

persianversion96 

My family lineage is Shirazi/Fasa Iranian. Both sets of my grandparents are cousins, my parents are second cousins once removed. One of my aunts and two of my uncles married their cousins, each couple had 2 children. All of us turned out normal. I don't know if our gene pool is actually extensive or if we all just got lucky.

KuuSusi13 2 points 21 hours ago 

Grandma and three of my cousins are products of incest between cousins and none of them have any obvious condition that you could attribute to anything other than normal genetics. The only thing that is genetic is some auto immune diseases and the fact that we have random red headed children appear in a family of dark brown/black hair.

Whiterose0818

See if I can remember this right: A brother and a sister got together with a brother and a sister and one of each of their offspring got together... Kinda like super first cousins getting together... Well their offspring was one of my grandparents... We all are a little off... We obsess, we pick at ourselves, we are ALL alcoholics, I am bipolar, and we are ALL extremely brilliant... All three of my children show ALL of the same signs, spare none... 

txdahlia 

One of my g-g-greatgrandfathers married twice and had kids with both. Wife #1 is the Aunt of Wife#2, (daughter of Wife#1 brother). The 2 families have intermarriage fo a century period with cousin to cousin marriage. This was a small town in Nova Scotia.

abandoningeden

My great grandparents (father's father's parents) were first cousins- their parents were siblings. My grandfather had bad alzheimer's before he died, and diabetes runs in that side of the family, not sure if that affected it. My dad has the BRCA2 mutation, but it actually comes down from his mom's side. But in general ashkenazi jews (like he is) have a lot of inbreeding in their history. I'm a college prof who is frequently quoted in the news, so it doesn't seem to have affected me badly. I also won the genetic lottery and don't have BRCA2 :) 

ETA: In our extended family, I know a first cousin of my dad who has 5 kids and tons of grandkids and don't know of any genetic abnormalities in their family. My dad has a sister with 5 kids and tons of grandkids, one of whom died of leukemia when he was 2 years old. I personally also have Poly cystic ovarian syndrome (which is related to diabetes).

Sprinksies92 

So my mom's dad (my maternal grandfather) is the product of first cousin incest. He is from deep East Texas, but I've heard tell of his family being from Missouri so I'm not sure where his parents are from. His dad was a bootlegger and married his first cousin. They had 2 kids. My grandfather was really good looking when he was younger and still is as a man in his 70s. We think he has undiagnosed dyslexia, but I don't think that's necessarily incest related. He has some health issues, but nothing that other people in their 70s wouldn't have. His brother is ugly and a total asshole, but I don't know of any health or mental issues. He's ugly in a normal ugly way, not deformed. My mom was a model and became a nurse and my siblings and I are all quite good looking and very smart. Looking at other postings on here, I'd say we got very lucky. As far as beig ashamed of this or thinking it is weird, I think it's very weird and I'd never do it myself, but we kind of look at it like, "That's East Texas in the 1920's for ya."

YoursTrulySarcastic

My grandmother on my mother's side married her first cousin and have birth to my mom. No birth defects, just really short. Like 4'11 short. As for me, I've got depression and am not very tall. Like really short. Otherwise I'm healthy enough

wzeplin

My parents are first cousins (my mom's dad and my dads dad are brothers). Not sure If this is technically incest or not.

I have no issues (as far as I know), but my sister has bipolar disorder which the doctor suspects is a genetic issue. There's no family history either.

DasilvaSurfer 

My parents are first cousins, and I have no problems so far.

dracarys
 

There was a girl in my year at high school who had a child with her half brother. Poor baby ended up having a disease where he couldn't be touched/be covered as it caused his skin to come away. He passed away before he turned six months old. Not sure if his condition was due to incest or just bad luck.

JLesh13

Epidermolysis bullosa is not caused by incest.

adcas

-sigh-
Great grandparents, mom's paternal side- double second cousins. They were actually first cousins, twice. Their parents were first cousins, and their parents were first cousins. There was probably more, but no one kept a record of it and I didn't want to see how badly that side of my family tree looped. It's the Appalachians, OK?
Great grandparents- mom's maternal side- They were Amish. See item one.
Great Grandparents- dad's paternal side- European royalty. See item one.
Great Grandparents- dad's maternal side- Loops back to mom's paternal side :( We're not sure how bad it is because we're too afraid to look. All I know is that I have significantly fewer great-great grandparents than most people do, but at least it's not in the single digits.

It is important to remember that people in past generations were more likely to live in rural areas with much less population, rather than densely populated urban areas, and there was much less geographic mobility. The fertility rate was also higher in that women would start having children at a younger age and have more children. Children were often put to work (helping out around the farm or house) not long after they could walk. Marriages were looked at like business deals between families. Women (girls, really, considering their age) were often expected to live in their father, uncle, or brother's home until they married. People from outside the community, especially of a different ethnicity, were often looked at with suspicion or disfavor. It was not uncommon for women (mothers) to die in childbirth or men (fathers) to die at a young age. Women were often expected to produce children (helpers) to help her husband in his work, and there were no fertility treatments or ways for it to be determined the cause of the infertility.

These things contributed to things like:

• Most people marrying a cousin of some sort.

• Multiple siblings from one family marrying siblings (or other close relatives) from the same other family

• People being "double first cousins" and even marrying as such

• With or without her husband's knowledge, a wife getting pregnant by one of her husband's brothers or her own brothers since it wasn't happening with her husband

• Children and step-children "taking over" for their deceased parent in becoming the lover and/or breeder in the home

• Siblings experimenting in their youth and having spousal relationships as adults (parents died, they are left with the farm; "spinsters" and "confirmed bachelors" living together or with each other)

And, unfortunately, there's also the fact that dependent abused children didn't have many, if any, places to turn and pregnancies and births happened as a result.

What all of this means is that actual family trees usually don't have as many branches as people might assume.