[srmf5]

Originally Posted by Mick Tator

I somehow doubt that. Cousins at that remove are very distant for the word ‘incest’ to be used. Second cousins share about 3% of DNA, it drops to less than 1% for third and about 0.25% for fourth cousins.

edit
What is the point of a a skeleton in the closet? Those stories often have an element of truth. Surely any half-serious genealogist would try to ascertain the facts? What is the point of perpetuating a myth?
If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton you may as well make it dance. (GBShaw)

You'd be surprised how disgusted people can get by finding out that a couple are/were third cousins, etc. Some people tend to use the term inbred quite loosely, particularly younger people. My own great grandparents were 2nd cousins and my aunt married her third cousin. I remember telling a friend that my great grandparents were 2nd cousins and she called me inbred. It wasn't in a malicious way but it also wasn't completely in a joking manner. I learned to keep it to myself after that. I personally wouldn't marry a known cousin but I wouldn't be judgemental about it either. However, it could easily happen that I'd unknowingly marry a distant relative if I married someone from the area where I was born. I've seen so many familiar names among matches who I had never known I was related to. I was actually surprised that Mum and Dad didn't end up matching each other when I got their DNA results.

[srmf5]

Originally Posted by pinkypinky

In your first post you said you hid the info? If was a typo,you can edit your post.

I think that the poster might have meant that the client requested the information to be excluded from the report. I could be wrong though.

[Mick Tator]

Originally Posted by srmf5

You'd be surprised how disgusted people can get by finding out that a couple are/were third cousins, etc. Some people tend to use the term inbred quite loosely, particularly younger people. My own great grandparents were 2nd cousins and my aunt married her third cousin. I remember telling a friend that my great grandparents were 2nd cousins and she called me inbred. It wasn't in a malicious way but it also wasn't completely in a joking manner. I learned to keep it to myself after that. I personally wouldn't marry a known cousin but I wouldn't be judgemental about it either. However, it could easily happen that I'd unknowingly marry a distant relative if I married someone from the area where I was born. I've seen so many familiar names among matches who I had never known I was related to. I was actually surprised that Mum and Dad didn't end up matching each other when I got their DNA results.

I wouldn't bother with people like that and certainly would not class them as friends. The marital pool in rural Ireland was very small before mechanised transport and a cash economy. Look at any village and even today you will find the butcher's son marrying the baker's daughter.

[Mick Tator]

Originally Posted by Hermy

I suppose for some people researching a family tree is a sentimental journey and the more one indulges in sentiment the less one is inclined to allow the facts get in the way of that journey.

As I get older I have less and less time for sentiment and especially so in genealogy. There are no heroes and villains in my tree - just lots and lots of dead people who are complete strangers to me despite their apparent familiarity.

However, I do think there is great merit in shining light on these so-called skeletons in the closet, either dispelling a myth or confirming a story that's been handed down.

As to my own research I have no significant skeletons to speak of, though in the case of one relative whom I had always been told had died young due to cancer, her death record gives cause of death as abortion which I'm not sure what to make of.

And while I write this it has just occurred to me that I myself, being an adoptee, am somebody else's skeleton in the closet!

Great post Hermy but I disagree with your concluding sentence. Thankfully that day is over.

[spurious]

Originally Posted by brainboru1104

I found out my great grandfather assaulted a constable in Fermanagh, spent time in Sligo prison and then moved to Cork after release, slightly changing the spelling of his surname.

I'd love to know the full story there.

The assault may have made the papers, so you might be able to find a mention.

[Balmed Out]

There are things I discovered as being new to me but known to older generation.
Two gran aunts, one had a child with the others husband.
A great grand uncle who died after being stabbed during a new york bar fight.
My grand father had an older half brother who had a disagreement with his father never to be seen again. Years and years later a nun from the area returned home and called in to tell the family she had met him at some point in south africa. I haven't been able to find records of him.
I have a distant relative with two hollywood stars in the hollywood walk of fame
My maternal grandparents refused to talk about the war of independence etc and I found my grand father had been a baby when his father passed away from pneumonia. His wife tried to get a military pension as he had been sleeping rough with the ira but was turned down as could have got sick regardless.
Ive gone back to about 1800 on all lines but for the main part I just know birth death and marriage info unfortunately. Other than the IRA link everything was known already by aunts or parents.

[OU812]

Originally Posted by Balmed Out

I have a distant relative with two hollywood stars in the hollywood walk of fame.

Oh come on!!! You can’t just casually drop that into the thread and give more detail.

Two stars means double threat (possibly a third they went recognised for).

What is it they have them for and who is it?

[paumurp]

One paternity issue, but my favourite, which I don't know if it counts as a skeleton as such, but my father's uncle was technically 'an escaped lunatic'. He escaped from what was then called the National Lunatic Asylum in Dundrum in 1926, with some help from the IRA.

We generally like to refer to him as mad uncle Jack now.

[Balmed Out]

Originally Posted by OU812

Oh come on!!! You can’t just casually drop that into the thread and give more detail.

Two stars means double threat (possibly a third they went recognised for).

What is it they have them for and who is it?

Not that famous just got one for tv work and another for movies, barry sullivan.

[KildareFan]

2nd cousin once removed one of the stars of Ballykissangel; another 2nd cousin played a Sergeant Callan in M.A.S.H......