Is It Legal To Marry Your First Cousin In Texas? Does It Matter?

American society doesn't exactly smile on first-cousin marriages anymore.

However, if you know your history, you know that first-cousin marriages were common until the late 1800s, providing an easy way to preserve family wealth and cultural values.

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Depending on where you lived it might have been your only viable option, as many families settled in sparsely populated areas.

It's been a couple of hundred years since it's been "cool" to marry a cousin- but is it even legal in Texas? In short, yes. Yes, it is.

Of course, you'd have to live with the stigma of people knowing you married your first cousin. The chance of birth defects in any of your children is raised- but not by as much as you would think- about 1% to 2%.

An Implication You May Not Have Considered

You may be thinking, "It's none of my business" which is probably true. But one implication you may not be thinking of is immigration.

Since first-cousin marriages are legal in Texas, folks can marry their first cousins to establish family members as U.S. citizens.

I wouldn't go so far as to call that fraud, as they could actually love their partner. And anyone's reason for marrying a consenting adult is filed as "not my business" in my brain at least.

So Is It A Free-For-All? Can I Marry Any Family Member?

Oh heavens no.

In Texas, it is not legal to marry "an ancestor or descendant" meaning a parent or grandparent to a child or grandchild, or "a parent's brother or sister; or a son or daughter of a brother or sister." That is, you cannot marry your uncle/aunt or your nephew/ niece.

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These are necessary prohibitions not only culturally (because eww) but also because it likely prevents quite a bit of abuse from older family members.

(Not to mention the possible closer consanguinity of the participants which could hurt their offspring.)

I Want To Move. Can I Still Marry My Cousin?

Quite possibly not.

Marrying your cousin is illegal in the following states: Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming, according to Oprah.com, which is a hilarious source for this information.

Additionally, there are many countries that ban cousin marriage, so you might want to check before you tie the knot with your cousin overseas.