Marriage: Keeping it in the Family

February 23, 1903, the day after John Fox and Jessie Tuttle's wedding day

After consummating their marriage, the parents of one of my oldest friends discovered in family charts that they are in fact 23^rd cousins, twice removed. They remain happily married to this day. While twenty-three degrees of separation seems like a big enough number to continue sleeping soundly in a joint bed, the cultural acceptance of relationships with only a few degrees of separation is just too close for comfort for most. Despite cultural taboos and legal barriers, the heart of the matter lies in the fact that affectionately entwined bloodlines have played a massive role in shaping history and culture throughout human history.