Consanguineous Marriages in the American Population by George B. Louis Arner
page 24 of 115 (20%)
page 24 of 115 (20%)
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This figure is evidently much too high, so in the hope of finding the
fallacy, I worked out the formula entirely from American data. To avoid the personal equation which would tend to increase the number of same-name first cousin marriages at the expense of the same-name not first cousin marriages, I took only those marriages obtained from genealogies, which would be absolutely unbiassed in this respect. Out of 242 marriages between persons of the same name, 70 were between first cousins, giving the proportion: Same-name first cousin marriages 70 -------------------------------- = --- = .285 All same-name marriages 242 as compared with Darwin's .57. So that we may be fairly safe in assuming that not more than 1/3 of all same-name marriages are first cousin marriages. Taking data from the same sources and eliminating as far as possible those genealogies in which only the male line is traced, we have it: Same-name first cousin marriages 24 1 1 ------------------------------------- = -- = -------- = ------- Different-name first cousin marriages 62 (2-7/12) 2.583 This is near the ratio which Darwin obtained from his data, and which he finally changed to 1/4. I am inclined to think that his first ratio was nearer the truth, for since we have found that the coefficient of attraction between cousins would be so much greater than between non-relatives, why should we not assume that the attraction between cousins of the same surname should exceed that between cousins of different surnames? For among a large number of cousins a person is |
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