Novelist Susan Zurenda on cousin culture

The Chattanooga Times Free Press had an article on March 2nd, about a novel that involves a cousin marriage:

South Carolina is among the 19 states where marriage between first cousins is legal. Also in that group are Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina, though the latter prohibits marriage between double first cousins.

Zurenda has traced her Southern ancestry back to the 1700s and discovered a marriage in her lineage between first cousins, but suspects there were probably others.

"It was encouraged in the South for a lot of reasons," she said of marriage between cousins, which kept wealth and property, including slaves, in the family. There also were not many other people for early settlers to choose from.

Before the Civil War, 12% of marriages in the U.S. were between first cousins, she said.

Her novel is Bells for Eli.