Jack in the Box

 

In many cultures, it’s frowned upon (sometimes even illegal) to marry a close cousin. But this doesn’t mean it never happens. J.S. Bach’s first marriage to his second cousin was arranged by their family. Edgar Allen Poe married his first cousin when he was twenty-seven and she was thirteen. H.G. Wells’ marriage to his first cousin lasted only three years. Charles Darwin studied the effects of inbreeding, but it didn’t stop him and his first cousin from marrying and having ten children together. Albert Einstein’s wife Elsa was his first cousin on his mother’s side, and his second cousin on his father’s side. Jerry Lee Lewis was twenty-two when he married his thirteen-year-old first cousin; a move that damaged his career. On the other hand, marrying a distant cousin carries no stigma at all. Kevin Bacon and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, discovered they were ninth cousins once removed on the PBS series, “Finding Your Roots.”