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Can anyone locate a marriage that I've not been able to? First cousins John Healey and Alice Healey were both from the Bourne area in Lincolnshire, although John moved to Dorrington near Sleaford Lincolnshire for a time. Alice was born at Swayfield abt 1833 and lived at nearby Bulby with her aunt Mary Ann who married Edward Harewood (or Harwood) a farmer. John was born at Stainfield, abt 1840 but the family moved to Dorrington where John's father was also a farmer. However by 1871 Mary Ann and Edward's household shows John Healy nephew, and Alice niece, along with 1 yr old George E Healy,. By 1881 Mary Anne is living with John, Alice and their 3 sons, Edward Harewood has died and John has apparently taken over the farm. All three sons are found on the GRO index with MMN Healey. In theory the couple married sometime between the 1861 and 1871 census.

????

Marriages Dec 1866 (>99%)
HEALEY Alice Westminster 1a 709
HEALEY John Westminster 1a 709
OLDING Mary Westminster 1a 709
Yerbury Robert A Westminster 1a 709

Not sure how a couple living in Lincolnshire might marry in Westminster RD. If anyone has any suggestions on this I'd welcome them.

presume you mean stars not stats, but no their families were only modest farmers.

i thought first cousins could not marry could that be why they married in westminster

Not the case, marriage of first cousins, especially amongst royalty, was not uncommon. Such marriages have at times, and in ceratin cultures, been discouraged , becuase of the quite close blood involved. This is not the only first cousin marriage I have in my tree.

The table of kindred and affinity applying in England has never made any mention of marriage between first cousins being forbidden. Charles Darwin married his first cousin Emma Wedgewood.

Not seeing the Westminster image online, so only one way to find out, lol...(Robert Yerbury Married Mary Olding, Newspapers)

Alice a Housemaid 1861, perhaps she was in service, London)

Chris :)

(for reference, I take it this is her)

County Lincolnshire
Place Swayfield
Church name St Nicholas
Register type Parish Register
Register entry number 169
Baptism date 28 Apr 1833
Person forename Alis
Person sex F
Father forename Richard
Mother forename Elizabeth
Father surname HEALY
Person abode Swayfield
Father occupation Laborer

https://www.freereg.org.uk/

It may have been legal, but it was still not universally acceptable.

You could get a copy of the cert to resolve the issue.

The other answer is that they simply didn’t marry

The census info for Alice suggests that she lived with her aunt Mary Ann for many years. I'm not sure the notation of her being a housemaid to her aunt is necessaryily correct. Richard her father and Mary Ann were siblings, but Richard never rose beyond labourer status. She only on the 1861 census as a housemaid, she was with them in 1851 & is just described as neice, no occupation.

Whatever the case, I tried searching for more marriage detail on the Westminster marriages data on line and found nothing, so I think i'm going to have to get a copy cert to bottom out that marriage. As ErikaH says it is possible they didn't marry.

I have just stumbled across something that might be relevant to the situation. Whilst the Church of England has/had no problem with marriage between first cousins, the same is not true of the Roman Catholic Church.A dispensation would have been required. The Healey family came from an RC background, although various of them were baptised/married in CofE, in some cases both CofE and RC.(There was a local RC chapel/church)