Marriage of Phillip Hopkin to Sarah Hopkin (General)

by jhopkins , Saturday, January 16, 2010, 01:21 (5500 days ago) @ Paul Andrews

Thank you to both rookancestrybest and Paul for lots of good points, explanations etc; all well made.

Yes, I live as far away from the Forest as it is possible to be (short of Antarctica) - the South Island of NZ. Your comments reminded me of four things:

1. my great grandfather was Welsh speaking, so it is highly probable that his grandparents were as well, thus potentially reducing the pool of marriage candidates.

2. I discussed this with my sister this morning because I remember our family sabotaging a cousin to cousin relationship. Whilst it was said to have been done because of the cousin issue, we both suspect that the real reason was because the young woman's birth was outside of marriage. Her parentage was a secret kept from her father's subsequent wife and son (her half brother) - she was however recognised by our grandparents and others in the family! If the two cousins had got closer they would have found out they shared the same grandparents and the secret would have got out. Stupid family secrets...

3. I also recall a Jewish student of mine, who told me she was migrating to Australia because the Jewish community here was so small she thought she would never be able to find a husband - all the Jewish young men here were like brothers to her and it would have felt like incest to marry any of them.

4. Finally, a friend comes from a farming family in a remote South Island community. All of the farms in the district were once owned by relations, but are now dispersed. Marriages in those days happened between people who were less than a horse ride or walk away, but subsequently marriages happened within a much wider district and thus the farms were eventually lost. As his cousin said "the internal combustion engine has a great deal to answer for".

Thank you Paul for the suggestion of checking the signatures for final proof.